Location and Residential Concentration of the “Creative Class” in Riga, Latvia

A pronounced spatial concentration of the 'creative class' in Riga's historic inner city and adjacent pre-war neighborhoods has been identified, with significant variation among subgroups. Cultural workers exhibit the strongest clustering, while leisure industry workers are more spatially integrated across the city. This pattern reflects fragmented urban transformation typical of post-socialist cities and challenges the notion of a unified creative class. The study used geo-referenced individual-level census data from 2021 and a multi-scalar k-nearest neighbor approach to analyze residential patterns, revealing underrepresentation in Soviet-era housing estates rather than active displacement processes.

Berzins, M., Balode‐Kraujina, S., & Krisjane, Z. (2026). Location and Residential Concentration of the “Creative Class” in Riga, Latvia. Social Inclusion, 14. https://doi.org/10.17645/si.11611