Despite the Latvian Government’s reforms aiming at decreasing the emigration, data suggest that in 2011 around 37 thousand people left Latvia. Even if the Minister of Economy, Daniels Pavļuts stated that the number of the emigrated people from Latvia in 2012 was half of the number in 2011, Mihails Hazans, a professor of econometrics at the University of Latvia, said that there were no data to support this statement.
The Central Statistical Bureau compiled their data only on official registered emigration while data from foreign sources were in most cases unavailable. According to Hazans, even if the emigration decreases, diaspora will increase anyway, creating a network effect which stimulates emigration.
Source: http://www.apollo.lv/zinas/emigracija-nav-mazinajusies-pern-latviju-pametusi-37-000-cilveku/559170