Other events in Baltic States

While residents of Latvia adopted only four children over 10 years of age in the first half of 2016, citizens of other countries adopted 32 children of this age group from Latvia, the Welfare Ministry’s statistics show, informs LETA.

During the first six months of this year, Latvians adopted 60 children in total, while 63 children from Latvia were adopted by foreigners. Latvians still prefer to adopt younger children, as 56 of the 60 children adopted in the first half of the year had not yet reached the age of 10, while four were aged from 10 to 18 years.

Of the 63 children adopted by foreign citizens, 32 were more than 10 years old. In June alone foreigners adopted nine children over 10 years of age, while only one child in this age group obtained an adoptive family in Latvia.

The overall adoption rate has remained slower than last year, according to the ministry’s data. The total number of children adopted in the first half of the year dropped by 19 from the same period a year ago to 123.