Shifting Demographics in the Inner City of Riga

Keywords: population dynamics, Riga, inner city, reurbanization
Abstract Type: Virtual Paper Abstract

Abstract

Urban areas across Europe are changing in response to shifting demographics. The dynamics in residential mobility and population composition are having a substantial impact on the economic and social environments of cities. The aim of this research was to identify and analyze demographic processes in the inner city of Riga to gain a better understanding of these processes and their interactions between the inner city and the suburbs. The research was based on a dataset compiled from annual surveys conducted by the Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia from 2011 to 2021. It covered all 58 neighborhoods of Riga, including both inner and outer city, as well as the seven adjacent municipalities of Riga. The main variable calculated in this research was the population growth rate, which was then analyzed using several sets of maps. As a result, a presence of reurbanizing inner city and an increased preference to reside in its area was observed. Since suburban areas also continued to grow rapidly during this period, the reurbanization of Riga's inner city was found to coexist with an ongoing suburbanization of Riga's adjacent municipalities.