Vidzeme

Vidzeme Vidzeme
From top, left to right: Riga Old Town Old townhouses in Jūrmala Ķemeri National Park Turaida Castle
Coat of arms
Location of Vidzeme in Latvia
Coordinates: 57°15′N 25°30′E / 57.250°N 25.500°E / 57.250; 25.500[1]
Country	Latvia
Largest city	Riga
Population [timeframe?][citation needed]
• Total	1.3 million
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)
HDI (2019)	0.854[2] very high · 4th

Vidzeme (pronounced [ˈvid̪͡z̪eme]; Old Latvian orthography: Widda-semme, Livonian: Vidūmō^[3]) is one of the Historical Latvian Lands. The capital of Latvia, Riga, is situated in the southwestern part of the region. Literally meaning "the Middle Land", it is situated in north-central Latvia north of the Daugava River. Sometimes in German, it was also known as Livland, the German form from Latin Livonia, though it comprises only a small part of Medieval Livonia and about half (the Latvian part) of Swedish Livonia. Most of the region's inhabitants are Latvians (85%), thus Vidzeme is the most ethnically Latvian region in the country.^[4]

The historic Governorate of Livonia is also larger than Vidzeme, since it corresponds roughly to Swedish Livonia.