(Redirected from Demographics of Germany)
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The following is an overview of the 'demography of Germany'.
The demography of the Federal Republic of Germany is monitored by the "Statistisches Bundesamt" (
Federal Statistical Office of Germany). The population of
Germany is approximately 82,468,000, making it the 14th most populous country in the world. Germany's population is characterized by zero or declining growth
[1], with an aging population and smaller cohort of youths.
There are more than 16 million people of non-German descent (first and second generation, including mixed heritage), about seven million of which are foreign residents. The largest single nationality group of these are the Turkish. Germany has been a prime destination for refugees from many developing countries, in part because its constitution long had a clause giving a 'right' to
political asylum, but restrictions over the years have since made it less attractive.
Germany has one of the world's highest levels of education, technological development, and economic productivity. Since the end of
World War II, the number of students entering universities has more than tripled, and the trade and technical schools are among the world's best. With a per capita income of about $27,000, Germany is a broadly middle class society. Germans also are very mobile; millions travel abroad each year. A generous social welfare system provides for
universal health care,
unemployment compensation, and other social needs. Due to Germany's aging population and struggling economy, the welfare system came under a lot of strain from the 1990s. This led the government to push through a wide-ranging programme of belt-tightening reforms,
Agenda 2010, including the labour market reforms known as
Hartz I - IV.
Major metropolitan areas
| City name | Location | Description | Population | Largest German ethnic groups | Largest non-German ethnic groups |
|---|
| Berlin | | Berlin is the capital of Germany and its largest city. Berlin lies in the eastern part of the country and has a reputation for cosmopolitan lifestyle, the German "city that never sleeps". | 4 million | Berliners, Polish Germans, German Turks, Russian Germans and others | Turks, Poles, Russians, Vietnamese |
| Hamburg Metropolitan Region | | Hamburg has a long tradition for sea trade and civil establishment. Hamburg is proud of its sophisticated bar and music scene and its reputation as Germany's "capital of good taste". | 4 million | Hamburgers, "(Lower-)Saxons" and others | Scandinavians, Portuguese, Poles, Turks, Afghanistanis, Iranians |
| Munich | | Munich has Germany's highest standard of living. Countless sporting and leisure opportunities - both in the city and in its picturesque region. Munich is a powerhouse of the German economy and rich in Bavarian culture. | 3 million | Bavarians, Franks and "Zugereiste" | Turks, Croats, Serbs, Greeks, Austrians, Italians |
| Leipzig / Halle Metropolitan Region | | Also dubbed "City of Heroes", Leipzig is where the 1989 revolution that brought down the Berlin Wall started. Today totally refurbished, it sports Europe's highest density of Art Nouveau architecture. Very lively bar scene, fastest growing economy in Germany. | 1.2 million | Leipzigers, Saxons and others | Asians, Russians, Italians, Iranians |
| Cologne / Rhine Ruhr Area | | Cologne is the largest and unofficial capital city of the Rhineland, the very Western part of Germany. Particularly among young Germans, Cologne is renowned for its nightlife and open-minded atmosphere. | 10 million | Rhinelanders, Polish Germans, German Turks and others | Spaniards, Iranians, Japanese (large Japanese community in Düsseldorf) |
| Frankfurt Rhine Main Area | | Frankfurt is the economic and financial center both for Germany and the continental European Union. Frankfurt is arguably Germany's most international city. It boasts a large airport and numerous skyscrapers. Within Germany, the city has a reputation of being very business-oriented, perhaps at the expense of other pursuits. | 5 million | Hessians, German Turks and others | Turks, Iranians, Italians, Greeks, Koreans, Americans |
Ethnic groups
'Nationalities in Germany' (December 31, 2004)Germans
| 75,212,900 1 |
| legal foreign residents | 7,288,000 1 |
| Turks | 1,764,300 1 |
| Italians | 548,200 1 |
| Serbs | 507,328 4 |
| Greeks | 370,000 6 |
| Poles | 327,239 1 |
| Croats | 229,200 1 |
| Vietnamese | 183,500 ² |
| Russians | 179,000 ² |
| Austrians | 174,000 1 |
| Bosnians | 156,000 1 |
| Ukrainians | 128,100 ² |
| Romanians | 125,651 ² |
| Portuguese | 116,700 ² |
| Dutchmen | 114,100 ² |
| Spaniards | 108,300 ² |
| French | 100,500 ² |
| Iranians | 100,000 ² |
| Americans | 96,600 1 |
| Britons | 95,900 ² |
| Moroccans | 73,000 ² |
| Macedonians | 61,000 5 |
| Sri Lankans | 60,000 ² |
| Afghans | 57,900 ² |
| Azerbaijani | 55,000 ² |
| Hungarians | 47,800 ² |
| Lebanese | 40,900 ² |
| Bulgarians | 39,200 ² |
| Indians | 38,900 ² |
| Czechs ³ | 38,800 ² |
| Swiss | 35,400 ² |
| Pakistanis | 30,900 ² |
| Eritreans | 25,000 ² |
| Koreans | 24,000 ² |
| Tunisians | 22,400 ² |
| Belgians | 21,800 ² |
| Slovenes | 21,000 1 |
| Ghanaians | 20,600 ² |
| Slovaks | 20,200 ² |
| Danes | 18,000 ² |
| Swedes | 16,200 ² |
| Lithuanians | 14,700 ² |
| Algerians | 14,500 ² |
| Finns | 13,100 ² |
| Albanians | 10,500 ² |
| Irish | 10,000 ² |
| Luxembourgers | 6,800 ² |
Sources:
1 destatis
² destatis.
Notes:
³ Including 8500 Persons with old
''Czechoslovakian'' citizenship
4 Including people from former Yugoslavia, who registered asYugoslavians before the country broke up.
5 know-library
6 [1] Office for foreign of Germany (Relations between Greece and Germany) |
The official statistics collect only nationality data:
Germans 91.5%,
Turks 2.4%, other 6.1% (made up largely of
Italians,
Serbs,
Croats,
Bosnians,
Greeks,
Poles,
Vietnamese, and
Russians).
While most of the German citizens are ethnic Germans (67.1 million or 81.4%) or naturalized immigrants (15.3 million or 18.6%), there are four other sizable groups of people that have lived in Germany for centuries. They are referred to as "national minorities" (''nationale Minderheiten''):
Danes,
Frisians,
Roma and
Sinti, and
Sorbs.
There is a
Danish minority (about 50,000, according to government sources) in the northern-most state of
Schleswig-Holstein.
Eastern and Northern
Frisians (60,000 inhabitants define themselves as "Frisians") live at Schleswig-Holstein's western coast, and in the north-western part of
Lower Saxony. They are part of a wider community (
Frisia) stretching from Germany to the northern
Netherlands.
The
Sorbs, a
Slavic people with about 60,000 members (according to government sources), are located in the
Lusatia region of
Saxony and
Brandenburg. They are the last remnants of the Slavs that lived in central and eastern Germany since the
7th century.
Roma people have been in Germany since the
Middle Ages. They were persecuted by the
Nazis, and thousands of Roma living in Germany were killed by the Nazi regime. Nowadays, they are spread all over Germany, mostly living in major cities. It is difficult to estimate their exact number, as the German government normally does not keep information on the ethnicity of its citizens. There are also many assimilated Sinti and Roma. A vague figure given by the German Department of the Interior is about 70,000. In the 1990s, many Roma moved to Germany from former
Yugoslavia. In contrast to the old-established Roma population, the majority of them do not have German citizenship, they are classified as
immigrants or
refugees.
After World War II, there was an influx of 14 million ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe who were expelled or fled after Germany lost the war.
Since the 1960s, ethnic Germans from the
Soviet Union have come to Germany, especially from
Kazakhstan,
Russia, and
Ukraine.
During the time of
Perestroika, and after the dissolution of the
Soviet Union, the number of immigrants increased heavily. Some of these immigrants are of mixed heritage.
Germany now has 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 inflow to more than 200,000 since 1991. Jews have a voice in German public life through the
Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland. Some Jews from the former Soviet Union are of mixed heritage.
There are also around 100,000
Afro-Germans and 150,000+ African nationals as well as nearly 50,000
Indian-Germans.
See Also:
★
Volga German
Germany's foreign-born population by country of origin
East-West migration
With unification on
October 3,
1990, Germany began the major task of bringing the standard of living of Germans in the former
German Democratic Republic (GDR) up to that of western Germany. This will be a lengthy and difficult process because of the relative inefficiency of industrial enterprises in the former GDR, difficulties in resolving property ownership in eastern Germany, and the inadequate infrastructure and environmental damage that resulted from decades of communist rule. Since reunification, hundreds of thousands of former East Germans have migrated into western Germany to find work.
Drastic changes in the socioeconomic landscape brought about by reunification have resulted in troubling social problems. Economic uncertainty in eastern Germany is often cited as one factor contributing to extremist violence, primarily from the political right. Confusion about the causes of the current hardships and a need to place blame have found expression in harassment and violence by some Germans directed toward foreigners, particularly non-Europeans.
Immigration
Main articles: Immigration to Germany
In its ''State of World Population 2006'' report, the United Nations Population Fund lists Germany with hosting the third-highest percentage of international migrants worldwide, about 5% or 10 million of all 191 million migrants
[2].
Religions
Main articles: Religion in Germany
Roman Catholic 31.4%,
Evangelical Church in Germany 30.8%, Nonreligious 29.6%, Muslim 4%, Orthodox 2%
[2]
Roman Catholic is mainly in the South East (Southern
Bavaria) and the Very West (
Rheinland &
Cologne). Strongholds of Protestants are in all Northern States. Muslim, Orthodox and Jewish minority communities are mainly in the big cities.
Languages
German is Germany's only official and most-widely spoken language.
Standard German is understood throughout the country, while
dialects — some quite distinct from the standard language — are used in everyday speech, especially in rural regions. Speakers with regional dialects and accents are not frowned on or interpreted as uneducated. On the contrary, dialects are seen as symbols of regional identity and spoken throughout all social classes.
English is the most common foreign language and almost universally taught by the secondary level. Other languages taught are
French,
Italian,
Spanish,
Portuguese, and
Russian.
Dutch is taught in
counties bordering the
Netherlands.
Latin and
Greek are part of the
classical education syllabus offered by some secondary schools.
According to a 2004 survey, two-thirds of Germany's citizens have at least basic knowledge of English. About 20% consider themselves to be speakers of French, followed by speakers of Russian (18%), Italian (6.1%), and Spanish (5.6%). The high number of Russian speakers is a result of the
GDR's close relation to the Soviet Union — more than half of the Germans in the East speak Russian, compared to 5.5% in the western part of the country (the majority were originally from the East).
Danish,
Low German,
Sorbian, and
Frisian are officially recognized and protected as minority languages by the
European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in their respective regions. Wisth speakers of
Romany are living in all parts of Germany, the federal government has promised to take action to protect the language. Until now, only
Hesse has followed Berlin's announcement, implementing concrete measures to support Romany speakers.
Literacy
Over 99% of those of age 15 and above are estimated to be able to read and write.
Statistics
Age structure (2003):
★ 0-14 years: 14.7%
★ 15-64 years: 67.3%
★ 65 years and
Population growth rate: -0.033% (2007)
Birth rate: 8.2 births/1,000 population (2007)
Death rate: 10.71 deaths/1,000 population (2007)
Net migration rate: 2.18 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2007 est.)
Sex ratio:
|-
|at birth:
|1.06 male(s)/female
|-
|under 15 years:
|1.05 male(s)/female
|-
|15-64 years:
|1.03 male(s)/female
|-
|65 years and over:
|0.62 male(s)/female
|-
|total population:
|0.96 male(s)/female (2000 est.)
Infant mortality rate: 4.09 deaths (within one year) per 1,000 live births (2007)
Life expectancy at birth (2001):
|-
|total population:
|78.29 years
|-
|male:
|75.59 years
|-
|female:
|81.34 years
Total fertility rate: 1.39 children born/woman (2005)
In 1996, TFR was 1.39 for ethnic Germans and 2.40 for ethnic Turks.
[3]
References
1. Population Handbook, 5th edition
2. United Nations Population Fund: State of World Population 2006
External links
★
Homepage of the Federal Statistical Office Germany (in English)
★
German demographics in Online-Databank HISTAT (in German, Registration needed)
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