The Federal Republic of Germany is situated in central Europe and covers an area of approximately 357 000 km2. It shares borders with Denmark, Poland, Czechia, Austria, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands (Fig1.1). As of December 2018, Germany had some 83 million inhabitants (42 million women and 41 million men). Population density in the eastern part of the country is lower than in the western part and also varies considerably between the 16 states, ranging from 69 inhabitants per square kilometre in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to 3948 inhabitants per square kilometre in Berlin. Berlin is the country’s capital and, with 3.7 million residents, its largest city.
Fig1.1
The number of inhabitants had started to decrease from 2005 and reached its lowest point in 2011,[1] but since then has grown steadily, with a sharp increase since 2015 (Table1.1). Since the fertility rate has remained relatively constant, population growth is mainly due to the positive migration balance in recent years (Statistisches Bundesamt, 2019a). Immigration peaked in 2015 with 2.1 million immigrants and a net migration of 1.1 million people. Net migration to Germany decreased again in the three following years (Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge, 2019).
Table1.1
Similar to the rest of the EU, the German population is ageing and trends in the population age distribution are expected to become more pronounced in the future. The share of the population under 15 years of age, for example, was 13.1% both in 1995 and 2018, whereas the share of those aged 65 or older exceeds that of younger people and increased from 15.5% to 21.7% (Table1.1). This is the second highest share among EU Member States after Italy. In addition, the share of the population aged 80 or older increased from 4% in 1995 to 6% in 2018 and is expected to increase to between 9% and 13% by 2060 (depending on the underlying assumptions of different forecasting models), which will have a considerable impact on health and long-term care (LTC) services (Statistisches Bundesamt, 2019a; see section 5.8 Long-term care.).
The proportion of people with German citizenship was 87.8% of the total population in 2018, with differences between the states ranging from 95.5% in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and 81.5% in Berlin. The largest religious groups in Germany are Catholic and Protestant Christians.