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Flat and forested, Latvia lies on the Baltic Sea in northern Europe. Few former Soviet republics experienced a more profound shift in character during their 50 years of domination than this Baltic country. From 1939-1989 the proportion of ethnic Latvians in Latvia dropped from 73 to 52 percent—due to heavy Russian immigration and Latvian emigration. Since independence in 1991, Latvian ethnicity has started to rebound and now constitutes 59 percent of the population—Russians are 29 percent. An industrial country with trade ties to the West, Latvia joined NATO and the EU in 2004.