This paper analyses the ageing of the population, which may become one of the most important social changes of the 21st century in the European Union. This work uses statistics from the Central Statistical Bureau (CSB) of Latvia, as well as statistics prepared by the State Social Insurance Agency of Latvia (SSIA). The results suggest that t the economic development and the stabilisation of employment in Riga and Riga region in the second decade of the 21st century was ensured not by generational change or migration, but by the inclusion of members of the population who had previously been economically inactive into the labour market. This may lead to the conclusion that around 2030, the ageing of the population will become one of the most serious problems in Pieriga.