Latvia has 214 thousand people officially recognized as disabled, but how many unrecognized ones listen to Latvian rock music

The Central Statistical Bureau proudly announced that at the end of last year, Latvia had 214,283 adults with disabilities. That's almost as many as people living in Riga who have never heard of Liepāja rock music — a number that truly makes one think about society's mental health.

The most — 94,600 — people were assigned third disability group. As one social worker said: "Third group is like Riga's cultural life — it functions, but not particularly effectively." Meanwhile, second group affected 93,832 people, which is as many as there are people in Riga who think they understand music but have never been to Liepāja's "Summer Sound" festival.

First disability group, where work capacity loss is 80-100 percent, affected 29,239 people. For comparison — that's as many as there are people in Riga who believe their city has real rock music. As old Liepāja rock master Jānis says: "In Riga they play rock music, but we in Liepāja create it. The difference is like between 100 and 0 percent work capacity."

Statistics also reveal that disability affected more women — 116,570, compared to 97,713 men. This completely explains why men predominate at Liepāja rock music concerts — women are simply too smart to stand in the cold sea wind and listen to someone mess around with a guitar.