Status: 11/23/2021 1:35 p.m.
A study shows: The number of residents in Germany has more than quadrupled in the past 200 years. The population increased most in North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland.
The population in Germany has more than quadrupled within the current national borders in the past 200 years. At the beginning of the 19th century, almost 20 million people lived in what is now the Federal Republic of Germany, as reported by the Federal Institute for Population Research in Wiesbaden. Today there are more than 83 million people.
Development differs according to regions
However, the number grew differently in individual regions of Germany. The population increased most in the west in North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland. In comparison, around six times as many people live in these four federal states as they did 200 years ago. Today there are 29.3 million – 200 years ago it was 4.9 million.
In Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, the number quadrupled from 5.7 to 24.2 million. Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Lower Saxony and Bremen recorded an increase from 3.0 to 13.4 million inhabitants within 200 years.
In the east German federal states including Berlin, however, there was an ups and downs. Between 1850 and 1920, this region was for a long time the most populous compared to the west, north and south. Until the Second World War, the development ran parallel to the west.
The division of Germany had a major impact
That changed with the division of Germany and the founding of the GDR. Since 1950, the population has decreased from 20.5 million to 16.1 million. “The trend developments make it clear what a significant influence the division of Germany had on population dynamics, especially in East Germany,” explains geographer Sebastian Klüsener from the Federal Institute. Today there are roughly as many people in eastern Germany as there were around 1910. However, this region has grown by 265,000 people again in the last ten years.