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thumb|Detailed map of Latvia
Latvia lies on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea on the level northwestern part of the rising East European platform, between Estonia and Lithuania. About 98% of the country lies under elevation. With the exception of the coastal plains, the ice age divided Latvia into three main regions: the morainic Western and Eastern uplands and the Middle lowlands. Latvia holds over 12,000 rivers, only 17 of which are longer than , and over 3,000 small lakes, most of which are eutrophic. The major rivers include the Daugava, the Lielupe, the Gauja, the Venta and the Salaca. Woodlands cover around 52% of the country (Pine – 34%, Spruce – 18%, Birch – 30%). Other than peat, dolomite, and limestone, natural resources are scarce. Latvia has of sandy coastline, and the ports of Liepāja and Ventspils provide important warm-water harbors for the Baltic coast.
Latvia is a small country with a land size of . However, it is larger than many other European countries (Albania, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Luxembourg, North Macedonia, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia or Switzerland). Its strategic location has instigated many wars between rival powers on its territory. As recently as 1944, the USSR granted Russia the Abrene region, which Latvia contested after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Physical environment
Latvia encompasses 64,589 square kilometers and is an extension of the East European Plain. Its flat terrain differs little from that of its surrounding neighbors. Forest territories are expanding naturally, as well as due to intentional afforestation of barren land and land that cannot be used for agricultural purposes. More than half of the forests consist of Scots pine or Norway spruce. and therefore one of the most widespread pastimes of the population is picking bilberries, cranberries, mushrooms, and other bounties of the natural environment. therefore timber and wood products are among the country's most important exports.
The traditional Latvian approach to forestry with its small system of clear-cut areas combined with the network of forest territories that have seen little human influence, as well as the outflow of people from rural areas to urban ones have facilitated the emergence of a unique biological diversity in forests which home animal and bird species, that have died out or are very rare elsewhere in Europe.
According to a World Wildlife Fund study in 1992, Latvia has sizable populations of black stork, lesser spotted eagle, Eurasian otter, European beaver, Eurasian lynx, and grey wolf.
| source 2 = NOAA (precipitation days 1961-1990), Weather Atlas, and World Weather Online (snowfall)
Natural resources
Latvia cannot claim valuable natural resources.