The demography of Germany is monitored by the Statistisches Bundesamt (Federal Statistical Office of Germany). According to the most recent data, Germany's population is 83,467,117 (31 December 2025) making it the most populous country in the European Union and the nineteenth-most populous country in the world. The total fertility rate was rated at 1.32 in 2025, significantly below the replacement rate of 2.1. Germany has had one of the world's lowest fertility rates of around 1.3 to 1.4 since the 1980s. Due to a low birth rate, Germany has recorded more deaths than births every year since 1972, which means 2025 was the 54th consecutive year the German population would have decreased without immigration. However, due to immigration the population actually increased by around five million people over the last half-century. In 2025, the number of people with a foreign background was about 31%; this category includes foreigners, naturalized citizens, ethnic German repatriates from Eastern Europe and the children of all of the above.
Until the early 20th century Germany was also a large emigrant nation; in the 19th century more than 5 million citizens of the German Empire emigrated to the US alone, and in the early 20th century Germany lost another two million to the US as well as significant numbers to Latin America, Canada and Eastern Europe. However, after World War II immigration began to outweigh emigration, as around 14 million ethnic Germans were expelled from the former eastern provinces of the Reich and other areas in Eastern Europe. Of these, roughly 12 million made their way to present-day Germany and several hundred thousand settled in Austria and other countries, while several hundred thousand died. Some additional 4.5 million ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe repatriated after 1950, especially around the end of the Eastern Bloc and mostly from the former Soviet Union, Poland and Romania.
Large-scale immigration to West Germany began during the time of the Wirtschaftswunder from the 1950s to early 1970s when Germany had a shortage of workers and let in Southern Europeans from countries like Turkey, Italy and Spain on a temporary basis as guest workers. The liberalisation of guest worker legislation allowed many to stay and build a life in West Germany. Germany saw another large wave of immigration towards the end of the 20th century, driven by German reunification, refugee inflows from the Yugoslav Wars and large numbers of Turkish nationals seeking asylum. The next large immigration wave began after eastern expansion of the European Union in 2011 as Eastern Europeans were now allowed to live and work in Germany without a visa. During the European migrant crisis of 2015 Germany took in a large number of refugees, both in absolute terms and relative to other EU member states; the country recorded 476,649 asylum seekers in 2015, 745,545 in 2016 and declining numbers thereafter.
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 university has more than tripled, and the trade and technical schools are among the world's best. With a per capita income of about €40,883 in 2018, Germany is a broadly middle-class society. However, there has been a strong increase in the number of children living in poverty. In 1965, one in 75 children was on the welfare rolls; but by 2007 this had increased to one child in six. These children live in relative poverty, but not necessarily in absolute poverty."Sozialhilfe: Kinderarmut nimmt zu". Focus. 15 November 2007 Millions of Germans travel overseas each year. The social welfare system provides for universal health care, unemployment compensation, child benefits and other social programmes. Germany's aging population and struggling economy strained the welfare system in the 1990s, resulting in the government adopting a wide-ranging programme of controversial belt-tightening reforms, Agenda 2010, including the labour-market reforms known as Hartz concept.
History
1945–1990
After the World War II border shifts and expulsions, the Germans from Central and Eastern Europe and the former eastern territories moved westward to post-war Germany. During the partition of Germany, many Germans from East Germany fled to West Germany for political and economic reasons. Since Germany's reunification, there are ongoing migrations from the eastern New Länder to the western Old Länder for economic reasons.
The Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic followed different paths when it came to demographics. The politics of the German Democratic Republic was pronatalisticHolger Wunderlich. Springer VS. Familienpolitik vor Ort – Strukturen, Akteure und Interaktionen auf kommunaler Ebene. p. 52 while that of the Federal Republic was compensatory.
Fertility in the GDR was higher than that in the FRG. Demographic politics was only one of the reasons. Women in the GDR had fewer "biographic options". Young motherhood was expected of them. State funded cost-free childcare was available to all mothers.
+ Mother's mean age at first birth in East and West Germany Year 1960 1970 1980 1985 2002 2008West Germany 24.9 23.825.026.227.628.7East Germany 23.0 22.522.322.326.427.5 Note: Berlin is included into East Germany for the year 2002 and 2008. Source: Kreyenfeld (2002); Kreyenfeld et al. (2010); HFD Germany (2010)
1990–today
About 1.7 million people have left the new federal states (the East) since the fall of the Berlin Wall, or 12% of the population; a disproportionately high number of them were women under 35.
After 1990, the total fertility rate (TFR) in the East dropped to 0.772 in 1994. This has been attributed to a "demographic shock": people not only had fewer children, they were also less likely to marry or divorce after the end of the GDR; the biographic options of the citizens of the former GDR had increased. Young motherhood seemed to be less attractive and the age of the first birth rose sharply.
In the following years, the TFR in the East started to rise again, surpassing 1.0 in 1997 and 1.3 in 2004, and reaching the West's TFR (1.37) in 2007. In 2010, the East's fertility rate (1.459) clearly exceeded that of the West (1.385), while Germany's overall TFR had risen to 1.393, the highest value since 1990, which was still far below the natural replacement rate of 2.1 and the birth rates seen under communism. In 2016, the TFR was 1.64 in the East and 1.60 in the West.
Between 1989 and 2009, about 2,000 schools closed because there were fewer children.
In some regions the number of women between the ages of 20 and 30 has dropped by more than 30%. In 2004, in the age group 18–29 (statistically important for starting families) there were only 90 women for every 100 men in the new federal states (the East, including Berlin).
Until 2007 family politics in the federal republic was compensatory, which means that poor families received more family benefits (such as the Erziehungsgeld) than rich ones. In 2007 the so-called Elterngeld was introduced. According to Christoph Butterwegge the Elterngeld was meant to "motivate highly educated women to have more children"; the poor on the other hand were disadvantaged by the Elterngeld, and now received lower child benefits than the middle classes.Christoph Butterwegge, Michael Klundt, Matthias Zeng: Kinderarmut in Ost- und Westdeutschland. 2., erweiterte und aktualisierte Auflage. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2008, , p. 99–100 The very well-off (who earn more than 250.000 Euro per annum) and those on welfare receive no Elterngeld payments.§ 10 Abs. 5 BEEG, BGBl. I, S. 1885, 1896
In 2013 the following most recent developments were noticed:Bujard, Martin (Hrsg.) (2013): Elterngeld und Elternzeit in Deutschland: Ziele, Diskurse und Wirkungen. Schwerpunktheft der Zeitschrift für Familienforschung, 25. Jg., Band 2, Leverkusen: Verlag Barbara Budrich
The income of families with young children has risen. Persons holding a college degree, persons older than 30 years and parents with only one child benefited the most. Single parents and young parents did not benefit. Fathers are becoming more involved in parenting, and 28% of them now take some time off work (3.3 months on average) when their children are born. Mothers are more likely to work and as a result less likely to be economically deprived than they used to be. The birth rate of college-educated women has risen.
In the new federal states the fertility rate of college-educated women is now higher than that of those without college degrees. Differences in value priorities and the better availability of childcare in the eastern states are discussed as possible reasons.Bundesintitut für Bevölkerungsforschung 2012. Talsohle bei Akademikerinnen durchschritten? Kinderzahl und Kinderlosigkeit in Deutschland nach Bildungs- und Berufsgruppen. Expertise für das Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend. p. 15
In 2019, the non-profit Austrian Institute of Economic Research and the Bertelsmann Stiftung published a study about the economic impact of demographics. The researchers assume a reduction in the per capita income of €3,700 until 2040.
Population
The contemporary demographics of Germany used to also be measured by a series of full censuses mandated by the state, with the most recent held in 1987. Since reunification, German authorities rely on a micro census. Demographic statistics according to the World Population Review. Due to the privacy concerns of the German population after reunification, Germany did not hold a regular census until the EU-mandated 2011 German Census. The requirement was met with large disapproval. As required by the EU, Germany now continues to hold censuses every 10 years. One birth every 43 seconds One death every 34 seconds Net gain of one person every 4 minutes One net migrant every 2 minutes
Note: Crude migration change (per 1000) is a trend analysis, an extrapolation based average population change (current year minus previous) minus natural change of the current year (see table statistics). As average population is an estimate of the population in the middle of the year and not end of the year.
Fertility
The total fertility rate is the number of children born per woman. It is based on fairly good data for the entire period. Sources: Our World In Data and Gapminder Foundation.
+ Total fertility rate in Germany for 19th centuryYearFertility 1800 5.4 1801 5.40 18025.39 1803 18045.38 1805 18065.37 1807 18085.36 1809 18105.35 1811 18125.34 1813 18145.33 1815 18165.32 1817 1818 5.33 1819 5.35 1820 5.37 1821 5.35 1822 5.33 1823 5.31 1824 5.28 1825 5.26 1826 5.17 1827 5.07 1828 4.97 1829 4.88 1830 4.78 1831 4.80 1832 4.83 1833 4.85 1834 4.88 18354.9 1836 1837 1838 1839 1840 1841 1842 4.95 1843 4.97 1844 5.00 18455.02 1846 1847 18485.01 1849 1850 1851 4.87 1852 4.74 1853 4.60 1854 4.47 1855 4.33 1856 4.45 1857 4.56 1858 4.67 1859 4.79 1860 4.90 1861 4.93 1862 4.96 1863 5.00 1864 5.03 1865 5.06 1866 5.09 1867 5.11 1868 5.13 1869 5.16 1870 5.18 1871 5.24 1872 5.30 1873 5.35 1874 5.41 1875 5.46 1876 5.38 1877 5.30 1878 5.22 1879 5.14 1880 5.06 1881 5.14 1882 5.21 1883 5.29 1884 5.28 1885 5.26 1886 5.25 1887 5.23 1888 5.22 1889 5.21 1890 5.20 1891 5.18 1892 5.17 1893 5.16 1894 5.14 1895 5.11 1896 5.09 1897 5.06 1898 5.04 1899 4.99
Life expectancy
Sources: Our World In Data and the United Nations.
+Life expectancy in years for Germany, 1875–1950, for selected years Year Life expectancy 1875 38.5 1885 39.5 1895 42.8 1905 45.5 1911 49.0 1915 40.5 1925 57.4 1935 61.5 1946 60.5