Most Latvians think that the quality of life in Latvia became worse in 2024, according to a new SKDS poll for LTV, LSM reports. The survey showed that 30.3% of Latvian residents believed that the quality of life deteriorated slightly in 2024, while 11.7% said that the quality of life worsened significantly compared to 2023….
Latvia’s general age of retirement was raised to 65 years as of 1 January 2025, BNS reports. At the same time, the minimum time of employment to be eligible for old-age pension rose to 20 years. In 2024, the retirement age was 64 years and 9 months, while the working requirement was no less than…
Latvia’s minimum monthly wage rose from EUR 700 to EUR 740 as of 1 January 2025, BNS reports. The minimum wage will gradually transition to a percentage of the national average wage. Welfare Minister Uldis Augulis said that the change would improve the living standards of lower-paid workers. According to data from the Central Statistical…
Estonia’s state IT agency, the Estonian Information System Authority (RIA), has launched a mobile application for accessing the Eesti.ee state services portal, ERR reports. The new application will allow users to access the portal’s most popular services on their smartphones. The application’s use for official identification still requires a legislative amendment. The application is available…
Lithuania should not censor everything related to Russian culture, the country’s incoming culture minister, Sarunas Birutis, stated, LRT reports. Speaking in an interview with ELTA, Birutis insisted that the “Russian nation was not the same as the Kremlin.” He pointed out that Russians had been neighbours to Lithuanians “for millennia” and would continue to be…
Five schools in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, will take part in a pilot project to curb children’s use of smart devices, ERR reports. Ott Oja, head of Tallinn’s mental health action plan for children and youth, said that the city was developing the project in collaboration with researchers at Tallinn University’s Centre for Educational Psychology…
The Latvian government has approved new regulations under which transport and related infrastructure, signs, and information must be in Latvian and, if needed, in another official EU language, LSM reports. The new rules will thus preclude such signs in Russian. Justice Minister Inese Libina-Egnere said that the new rules would create a more attractive environment…
The finance committee of the Estonian parliament, the Riigikogu, has decided to cancel an additional 5% increase in the excise tax on alcohol that was planned for July 2025, ERR reports. Committee chairwoman Annely Akkermann said that the tax hike would have led to increased cross-border trade and grey market sales, thus reducing state budget…
Annual alcohol consumption in Estonia amounted to 11.2 litres of pure alcohol per capita in 2022, which was down from 14.8 litres in 2007, according to a report from the National Institute for Health Development (TAI), ERR reports. The report noted that alcohol consumption declined over 2012-2018, but began rising again in 2019 after a…