Valmiera and Liepāja are the safest State cities, according to their residents

Results of the survey on quality of life in all State cities (except for Riga) conducted by the Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia (CSB) show that 80.7 % of Liepāja residents and 78.7 % of Valmiera residents feel safe walking alone at night in their city. In other State cities the share accounted for 68 % in Ventspils, 67.9 % in Ogre, 65.4 % in Jūrmala, 63.8 % in Daugavpils, 63.2 % in Jelgava, 56.1 % in Rēzekne, and 41 % in Jēkabpils.

The survey about quality of life in Riga was carried out by Eurostat, therefore this time Riga is not included in the data.

More than three fourths of Valmiera, Jelgava and Ventspils residents have confidence in the local police, followed by 74.8 % of people living in Jūrmala, 73.5 % in Liepāja, 67.6 % in Ogre, and 66.5 % in Daugavpils. The smallest proportion of residents having confidence in the local police forces was recorded in Jēkabpils and Rēzekne (60.2 % and 60.5 %, respectively).

86 % of Valmiera residents say that their city is friendly to immigrants from other countries

In terms of the State city friendliness to different population groups, 86.3 % of Valmiera residents said that their city is a good place to live for immigrants from other countries, followed by Jelgava with 83.8 %, Jūrmala with 82.9 %, Liepāja with 80.4 %, Ogre with 70.2 %, Ventspils with 69.9 %, Rēzekne with 64.7 %, Daugavpils with 63.6 %, and Jēkabpils with 62.9 %.

Almost all residents of Valmiera, Liepāja and Ventspils believe that their city is friendly to families with young children (98.4 %, 98.3 % and 97.3 %, respectively). The share in Ogre constituted 93.8 %, in Jūrmala 93.3 %, in Rēzekne 93.2 %, in Jelgava 92.8 %, in Daugavpils 86.6 %, and in Jēkabpils 77.5 %.

Half of Liepāja residents is not satisfied with financial situation of their household and had difficulties to pay bills

The greatest proportion of those satisfied with financial situation of their household was recorded among the residents of Ogre (77.4 %), Valmiera (75.3 %), Ventspils (67.5 %), and Jūrmala (67.5 %). The indicator in Rēzekne accounted for 61.1 %, in Jelgava for 60.8 %, in Daugavpils for 60.5 %, and in Jēkabpils for 57.6 %. Quite an opposite situation was observed in Liepāja – half (50.6 %) of the city residents admitted that are not satisfied with the financial situation of their household and just 47.7 % were satisfied.

Thus, half (49.9 %) of the Liepāja residents had difficulties to pay bills, compared to just 46 % who admitted that almost never or never had difficulties to pay their bills at the end of the month. At the same time, the share of those not having difficulties to pay bills in Jēkabpils accounted for 61 %, in Jelgava for 67.2 %, in Rēzekne for 68.5 %, in Ogre for 72.4 %, and in Ventspils for 77.6 %. The smallest proportion of such people was registered in Daugavpils and Jūrmala (81.7 % and 84.9 %, respectively).

In Valmiera and Jelgava, 41.8 % and 41.2 % of the residents, respectively, agree that it is easy to find a good job in their city. In the rest of the State cities, such an opinion was given by about a third of the residents.

In Daugavpils, 43 % of the residents strongly or somewhat agreed that it is easy to find good housing in their city at a reasonable price. The same opinion was given by slightly fewer than one fifth of Ogre residents (19.5 %), 19.3 % of Ventspils residents, 18.9 % of Jūrmala residents and 17.4 % of Liepāja residents. Smaller proportion of such people was recorded in Jēkabpils (13.9 %), Rēzekne (11.7 %), Jelgava (11.6 %), while the smallest (just like five years ago) in Valmiera (7.5 %).

Ogre rated as the cleanest of all State cities

The greatest share of residents satisfied with the cleanliness of their city was registered in Ogre – almost all (99 %) city residents were very or rather satisfied with the city cleanliness. Ogre is followed by Ventspils with 98.9 %, Liepāja with 97.2 %, Valmiera with 96.4 %, Jelgava with 93.6 %, Daugavpils with 91.6 %, Rēzekne with 90.5 %, Jūrmala with 85 % and Jēkabpils with 79.2 %. Since 2017 the most notable upturn in the share of residents satisfied with the city cleanliness was recorded in Liepāja (of 11.1 percentage points), followed by Daugavpils (6.8 percentage points), Jēkabpils (6.8 percentage points), Jelgava (5.7 percentage points), Rēzekne (5.1 percentage points), and Jūrmala (5 percentage points). Satisfaction with the cleanliness of the city almost has not changed in Ventspils (up by 0.2 percentage points) and Valmiera (up by 0.5 percentage points). Residents of Ogre were not surveyed in 2017, as the city acquired the State city status after the administrative-territorial reform in 2021.

Methodological explanations:

The CSB conducted the survey on the satisfaction with the quality of life in cities from July to October 2022 in Daugavpils, Jelgava, Jēkabpils, Jūrmala, Liepāja, Ogre, Rēzekne, Valmiera and Ventspils. The survey covered 4 700 respondents and was conducted within the framework of the project Data collection for City and Subnational Statistics co-funded by the European Commission. Prior CSB conducted such survey in 2017. The results are available on the official statistics portal.

The survey on quality of life in cities in conducted in all EU countries based on a common methodology developed by Eurostat. More information on quality of life in European cities is published on the European Commission official website.

Media requests:
Communication Section
E-mail: media@csp.gov.lv
Phone: +371 27880666

More information on data:
Toms Zaltāns
Statistical Planning and Standardisation Section
E-mail: Toms.Zaltans@csp.gov.lv
Phone: +37167366613