Comparison of Demographic Tendencies in United Kingdom and Latvia

Another sector that we can comprehend in the sense of demography is education system. UK is very well-known by its high level of education especially in high schools and universities. People from all around the world go there to study and get a good education in UK’s famous universities, for example, Oxford, Durham or Cambridge. Despite that Latvia can also be proud of its schools. The level of teaching is high, and the knowledge gained from studies in Latvia is sufficient, but the problem is that Latvia is a small country and diplomas from Latvia’s universities very often do not satisfy international companies as the Latvia’s education is not so well known as, for example UK’s education. Starting from the primary education, to measure the education level, we should take a look at total net enrolment ratio in primary education. In Latvia from year 1999, when it was 98,5%(out of all children that are at the age of starting school) it has decreased to 93,7% till the year 2009, while in United Kingdom it is quite unchanging from years 1991-2008 it has balanced in percentage from 98.4% to 100%. This tendency shows that enrolment in education in United Kingdom is very stable, and when the index starts to fall down, the Government reacts fast and does something. Contrary, in Latvia the Government’s reaction is not seen and the index is slipping downwards. One of the issues that concern the people of Latvia is the free education, which is not actually free. The books for the children have to be bought and there are expenditures for clothing, for eating, for educational materials and so on. The education expenditures in Latvia are 5% of GDP, but in UK 5,5% of GDP. Latvia is spending 0,5% less on education than UK, and it is quite a lot money if we look at the GDP in overall. Another issue is that UK is richer country and it has bigger GDP as such, so it is not a surprise, that Latvia has lower education indexes. Of course there is no education crisis in Latvia, like in third world countries, but people always want to improve and the Government is the one who should help them.
To sum up, UK’s demography is in better shape than Latvia’s, because demography is closely related to economy and policy of the country. Most of the indexes and figures differ and at the moment the UK’s demography would be a good example for us, we should learn from them, especially the thinking and acts of government, and how they solve the problems.

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