Germany: Population Increases to 83.6 Million Amid Demographic Disparities Between East and West
According to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), Germany’s population today stands at 83.6 million, reflecting an increase of 3.8 million since 1990, or a rise of 5%.
The demographic evolution shows a disparity between the eastern and western regions of the country. In the eastern states, excluding Berlin, the population has decreased by 16% since 1990 to reach 12.4 million, while the western states have experienced a 10% rise, totaling 67.5 million.
Bavaria recorded the highest growth rates (+16%), followed by Baden-Württemberg (+14%), as well as Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein (+13%). In contrast, the largest declines were in Saxony-Anhalt (-26%), Thuringia (-20%), and Western Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (-18%).
Between 1991 and 2024, around 1.2 million people left the eastern states (excluding Berlin) for the west, with half of this migration occurring in the first decade following reunification, where the net outflow reached 611,000 from 1991 to 2000. From 2017 to 2022, for the first time, more people migrated from west to east (+18,000), before this trend reversed in 2023 and 2024.
Since 1991, net migration has generally remained positive, peaking in 2015 and 2016 due to the war in Syria, and again in 2022 following the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, reaching approximately 430,000 migrants in 2024.
Conversely, the birth rate has significantly declined since 1990, with about 230,000 fewer births recorded in 2024, and the fertility rate dropped by 7% over 35 years, from 1.45 to 1.35 children per woman.
