Population and Demographics

With over 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous country in the European Union. However, its fertility rate of 1.4 children per mother is one of the lowest in the world, and the federal statistics office estimates the population will shrink to between 69 and 74 million by 2050 (69 million assuming a net migration of +100,000 per year; 74 million assuming a net migration of +200,000 per year). Chemnitz is thought to be the city with the lowest birth rate in the world. Germany has a number of larger cities, the most populous being Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt and Stuttgart. By far the largest conurbation is the Rhine-Ruhr region, including Düsseldorf (the capital of NRW) and the cities of Cologne, Essen, Dortmund, Duisburg, and Bochum.

As of December 2004, about seven million foreign citizens were registered in Germany, and 19% of the country's residents were of foreign or partially foreign descent. The largest group (2.3 million) is from Turkey, and a majority of the rest are from European states such as Italy, Serbia, Greece, Poland, and Croatia. In its State of World Population 2006 report, the United Nations Population Fund lists Germany as hosting the third-highest percentage of international migrants worldwide, about 5% or 10 million of all 191 million migrants. As a consequence of restrictions of Germany's formerly rather unrestricted laws on asylum and immigration, the number of immigrants seeking asylum or claiming German ethnicity (mostly from the former Soviet Union) has been declining steadily since 2000. Immigrants to Germany often face integration issues among other difficulties. There has also been a recent surge in right-wing nationalist crimes. According to former Interior Minister Otto Schily, this trend does not necessarily indicate a rise in membership in right-wing groups.

Protestants (concentrated in the north and east) and Roman Catholics (concentrated in the south and west) each comprise about 34% of the population. The current Pope, Benedict XVI, was born in Bavaria. In total, more than 55 million people officially belong to a Christian denomination. Non-religious people, including atheists and agnostics amount to 28.3% of the population, and are especially numerous in the former East Germany. About three million Muslims live in Germany. Most are Sunnis and Alevites from Turkey, but there are a small number of Shiites. Germany has Western Europe's third-largest Jewish population. In 2004, twice as many Jews from former Soviet republics settled in Germany as in Israel, bringing the total Jewish population to more than 200,000, compared to 30,000 prior to German reunification. Large cities with significant Jewish populations include Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich. According to the Deutsche Buddhistische Union (German Buddhist Union), an umbrella organisation of the Buddhist groups in Germany, there are about 250,000 active Buddhists in Germany; 50% of them are immigrated Asians.

Facts and Figures

• Population: 82,438,000
• Age structure:
  • 0-14 years: 13.9% (male 5,894,724/female 5,590,373)
  • 15-64 years: 66.3% (male 27,811,357/female 26,790,222)
  • 65 years and over: 19.8% (male 6,771,972/female 9,542,348)
• Median Age:
  • Total: 43 years
  • Male: 41.8 years
  • Female: 44.3 years
• Population Growth Rate: -0.033%
• Birth Rate: 8.2 births/1,000 population
• Death Rate: 10.71 deaths/1,000 population
• Net Migration Rate: 2.18 migrant(s)/1,000 population
• Sex Ratio:
  • At birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  • Under 15 years: 1.054 male(s)/female
  • 15-64 years: 1.038 male(s)/female
  • 65 years and over: 0.71 male(s)/female
  • Total population: 0.966 male(s)/female
• Infant Mortality Rate:
  • Total: 4.08 deaths/1,000 live births
  • Male: 4.51 deaths/1,000 live births
  • Female: 3.62 deaths/1,000 live births
• Life Expectancy at Birth:
  • Total population: 78.95 years
  • Male: 75.96 years
  • Female: 82.11 years
• Total Fertility Rate: 1.4 children born/woman
• HIV/AIDS:
  • Adult prevalence rate: 0.1%
  • People living with HIV/AIDS: 43,000
• Ethnic Groups:
  • German 91.5%
  • Turkish 2.4%
  • Other 6.1% (made up largely of Greek, Italian, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish)
• Religions:
  • Protestant 34%
  • Roman Catholic 34%
  • Muslim 3.7%
  • Unaffiliated or other 28.3%
• Languages:
  • German
• Literacy:
  • Total population: 99%
  • Male: 99%
  • Female: 99%