Law on Administrative Territories and Populated Areas (2008)

The Law prescribes the conditions for the creation, registration, modification of boundaries and establishing of the administrative centre of administrative territories and the territorial divisional units of a municipality, and the definition of the status of a populated area, the procedures for registration thereof and the competence of institutions in these matters. An administrative territory is a territorial divisional unit of Latvia, in which the local government performs administration within the competence thereof. A populated area is a territory inhabited by people, the material pre-conditions have been established for residence therein and to which the relevant status of populated area has been granted according to the procedures specified by regulatory enactments. The Republic of Latvia shall be divided into the following administrative territories regions; cities; and, municipalities. The Republic of Latvia has the following populated areas: cities; villages; and farmsteads.