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2023 was an important year for Latvia from a digital perspective: Latvia’s domain, .LV, turned 30 years old. That’s how long we have been independent in the digital space, making our country known around the world and helping it to be recognised.
As of the end of 2023, there were 139,981 domain names registered in the .LV domain. Each of these nearly 140,000 .LV domain names has its own story, about its services, and its brand, both in the online world and in the world offline.
In 2023, the total number of active domain names rose by 1.8%, reaching 139,981 active names in the .LV domain. In 2022, this increase was only 0.5%.
Despite the overall increase in the number of domain names, the registrations of new domain names in 2023 were 1.5% less than in 2022. However, this reduction is not as steep as in 2022, when registrations of new .LV domain names decreased by 17.7% compared to 2021.
In total, 32,599 new .LV domain names were registered and 107,382 .LV domain names were extended in 2023, an increase of 2.9% compared to 2022.
A month-by-month comparison of the registration activity of new .LV domain names reveals no significant spikes of activity across the year. The most active months are February, March, and November, but there is no particular global activity causing an effect, except for our era’s continuous progress towards digitisation.
Of all .LV domain names, 6960 got a 100% discount. Some of them were registered to national and local government institutions, while others, to natural individuals over 18 living in Latvia who can register one .ID.LV domain name for free.
The popularity of Internationalised domain names (IDN) is slowly declining according to statistics, but this was to be expected after the 144.4% increase in 2021. This trend is likely to continue for several years until the total number of domain names reaches a steady upward trend. Latvian companies like this option and continue to register IDNs alongside their conventional domain names to protect their company or brand name, and to avoid confusion in marketing materials.
As of 31 December 2023, a total of 2425 IDNs were registered, which is 3.7% less than in the previous year.
Since 1 March 2004, names that use letters with diacritics from the Latvian alphabet (ā, ē, ī, ū, ō, ķ, ļ, ņ, ŗ, ģ, š, č, ž), e.g., tūdaliņ.lv, can be registered under .LV.
Note that the fee for the right to use IDNs is EUR 10.16 per year, including VAT!
Under the .LV domain, one can also register domain names under several second-level domain extensions.
The most popular is .ID.LV domain names. In 2023 the total number of .ID.LV increased 5.7%. These domain names can be obtained by natural individuals who are at least 18 and live in Latvia.
Only educational institutions can register their domain names under .EDU.LV, and they often do.
The fee for a third-level domain name, except for the .ID.LV names, is the same as that of a domain name registered directly under .LV.
The .GOV.LV second-level domain is maintained and managed by VAS “Latvijas Valsts radio un televīzijas centrs” (Latvia State radio and television center), while MIL.LV is managed by the headquarters of the National Armed Forces.
In 2023, the number of .LV domain names registered by Latvian residents and businesses increased by 1.1%.
In total, 75.2% of all .LV domain names are registered by Latvian residents and businesses. The remaining 24.8% have been registered by people and companies elsewhere.
Similarly to the previous two years, Lithuanian businesses and individuals have been actively working to reach Latvian consumers online and registering 3% of all .LV domain names. However, it’s particularly worth mentioning Estonian, Polish, and Bulgarian companies whose number of new domain name registrations is growing every year. Bulgaria is in the top 10 this year, ahead of the Netherlands and pushing Russia out of the top 10.
Riga’s citizens are the ones most digitally active in registering .LV domain names, having registered a total of 60,554 .LV domain names. This does not come as a big surprise given Riga’s population and the number of companies registered there, but it’s also interesting to look at the activity in other regions and municipalities.
The average age of domain names varies greatly, depending on their use. When it comes to .LV names, their users are loyal and don’t abandon a domain name so quickly once they’ve chosen one. It’s great to see that our lists also include domain names that have lived with us for all these years, and have reached the age of 30.
According to data compiled by Council of European National Top-Level Domain Registries (CENTR), among the Baltic states, Latvia’s businesses and residents are the least likely to register internet addresses. Similarly to the .LV domain, the global number of internet addresses registered by individuals and companies in Latvia rose by 3.3% in the last year. In total, we have only registered 187,063 domain names. Lithuanian residents and businesses registered 336,979 domain names, and those in Estonia, 279,332 domain names.
Today, there are many options. Anyone creating a new website can choose to register their name in one of more than 1500 top-level domain extensions (see https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db for a list of all the available extensions).
Compared to the other Baltic states, there are still many digital opportunities left in Latvia.
Although they are not very eager to register domain names, Latvian businesses and individuals are patriotic and prefer .LV to .COM, .EU, and other domains.
Interestingly, if we look at it in more detail, we can see that the top 10 countries do not include close neighbours like Finland, Sweden, or Norway whose businesses are fairly broadly represented in Latvia.
New general-purpose domain names are not very commonly used by people and businesses in Latvia. According to CENTR statistics, they only account for 2.2% of all the domain names registered in Latvia. Interestingly, .travel is not the one most commonly used in Latvia. This domain ranks 29th in Latvian statistics, with only 30 domain names registered.
An .LV domain name can be registered by a legal entity or a natural individual who is at least 18.
The total number of domain name rights holders (users) increased by 1.9% in 2023. A year before, it was just 1%. The average number of names registered per user remains at 1.6. 73.8% of all the users are from Latvia, i.e., natural individuals or companies residing or registered in Latvia.
The ratio of legal entities and natural individuals that have registered .LV remained virtually unchanged; almost 60% of all domain names are registered to legal entities, and 40%, to natural individuals.
If we look at the age, we can conclude that domain names age with their holders.
Customers can register .LV domain names directly with NIC (www.nic.lv) or through our partners, .LV registrars, who will not only help you register the domain name you want but also support you in maintaining it and dealing with other issues related to its use.
The NIC .LV Registry has signed cooperation agreements with 164 registrars in 25 countries, managing a total of 39.3% of all .LV domain names. The number of .LV domain names managed by registrars increased by 2.8% in 2023 to 55,008.
With the rising tide of cyberattacks and geopolitical tensions, users are becoming more interested in DNS security.
The statistics confirm this: the number of domain names signed with DNSSEC went up 11.1% in 2023.
DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extension) is a domain name system security extension intended to protect internet users from forged DNS data. DNSSEC authenticates DNS data and ensures that the contents of the DNS response have not been tampered with.
The .LV zone has been DNSSEC-signed for more than 10 years, since 2012. The adoption of DNSSEC saw the fastest expansion in 2020, although events in 2022 also encouraged businesses to take care of their digital security by signing the name of their website with DNSSEC.
Most of the DNSSEC-signed domain names are maintained by our partner .LV registrars. However, for 546 .LV domain names, DNSSEC is supported by their users.
The number of .LV registrars offering DNSSEC support to their customers grows with each year as well. Currently, 52 .LV registrars offer DNSSEC (ordered by the number of DNSSEC-signed domain names): SigmaNet, Nano IT, Area IT, Zone Media LLC, European Domain Registry OÜ,NETIM, AB SOFTWARE, ITEMS, Gandi SAS, IT Līderis, Hosting Concepts bv, Eurodns S.A, DM Plus, VIAKOM, Standart AG, BB Online, Scandinavian World, MEDIA PARTNERS, Key-Systems GmbH, SERVISNET, FIXCMS, Dynadot LLC, CSC Corporate Domains, NetPro SIA, BPtech.pl, RP Data, Tet, Lapu Lapa, OVH, SAS, NAMESHIELD, Ascio Technologies Inc., VITC, Ports Group AB, Nom-IQ Ltd, INWX GmbH & Co. KG, Baltnetos komunikacijos, UAB, X8, NameWeb, 1API, Global Village GmbH, ATVIRTUAL.NET, Deutsche Telekom AG, Safenames Ltd, WEB SOLUTIONS, AB NameISP, ingenit GmbH, Interneto vizija UAB, MarkMonitor Inc..
The statistics of CERT.LV (Information Technology Security Incident Response Institution) (https://cert.lv/lv/par-mums/parskati) show that in Latvia overall, the intensity of attacks on Latvian cyberspace and the number of compromised IP addresses are on the rise. The good news, however, is that the number of hacked websites and servers with .LV domain names is declining, according to information publicly available on http://www.zone-h.org/archive. Last year, that website only recorded 29 .LV domain names.
The .LV registry controller, in conjunction with CERT.LV (Information Technology Security Incident Response Institution), maintains an active protection tool in the form of a DNS firewall.
The DNS firewall is available free of charge to every individual, company, institution, and organisation in Latvia. It aims to protect users from cyber threats such as fake banking sites, fraudulent trading platforms, and websites that spread viruses.
The DNS firewall is updated every day with fraudulent links submitted by cybersecurity professionals and private individuals, and those identified by the CERT.LV team.
According to CERT.LV 2023 activity reports, protection was provided to users 642,448 times in 2023.
You can find out more about the DNS firewall and how to set it up in DNS firewall website (in latvian language).