Education Spending: Latvia

Analysis# Latvia Education Spending Latvia allocated 4.32% of its GDP to education in 2022, a significant decline from its 2013 peak of 7.25%. The country's current spending level exceeds its 1990 low of 3.578%, representing a 20.7% increase over the full three-decade period. Despite this long-term growth, recent years reveal a sharper downward trajectory, with education spending falling nearly 3 percentage points from the 2013 high. A dramatic shift occurred between 2013 and 2016, when spending dropped from 7.25% to 4.824%—a contraction likely reflecting post-financial crisis budget adjustments and fiscal consolidation. Since 2016, spending has stabilized in the 4.3–5% range, with only minor fluctuations. The 2020 uptick to 4.997% during the pandemic proved temporary, settling back to 4.32% by 2022. Latvia's education spending trajectory suggests a stabilization at substantially lower levels than the mid-2010s peak.