There was great joy that December 66 years ago when a little Pasinger named Thomas Seehaus turned Munich into a city of millions through his birth. Now, perhaps as early as next year, the city could break the next mark, albeit not quite as well – with a population of 1.6 million. As the Statistical Office reported when presenting the 2022 Statistical Yearbook, there are currently (as of the end of 2022) 1,588,330 residents registered as having their main residence here.
The increase is due, on the one hand, to the fact that the number of births (16,540) still exceeds the number of deaths (13,205), even though 1,790 fewer children were born last year than in 2021. On the other hand, significantly more people are new came to the city than moved away, the 133,060 people who moved in are compared to 111,300 people who moved away, which is reflected in the statistics with 21,760 additional Munich residents.
Almost 8,000 Ukrainians came to Munich in March and April 2022 alone. Almost 22,000 people from the country attacked by Russia now live in Munich, almost as many as from Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Greeks are represented in fourth place with 25,580 people, the Italians are in third place with 28,631. Most foreigners in Munich come from Turkey (38,709) and Croatia (38,669).
Since the number of naturalizations continues to rise (by 6.2 percent to 6,840 compared to 2021), more and more of them will soon have a German passport. This is not least because the waiting time until naturalization, which should actually be eight years, is increasingly being shortened. Currently, 52.1 percent of the population is listed under the heading “German without a migration background” in the population registers, 17.8 percent are Germans with roots abroad and 30.1 percent have foreign citizenship.
How much life pulsated again last year after the two Corona crisis years of 2020 and 2021 can also be seen in the 1.1 kilogram tome. The number of cinema viewers doubled, the number of visitors to the Botanical Garden increased by 46.9 percent, and that in Hellabrunn by 68.9 percent. People were also drawn to the top, 44,1779 visitors climbed the Olympic Tower, an increase of almost 150 percent compared to 2021.
More guests in town again
As is well known, it was typical of the Corona years that many people got a dog, probably because it promised variety in the home office, but at the same time provided the reason why people could ignore the ban on going out at the time. In 2020, 40,347 dogs were registered in Munich, and almost 3,000 were added the following year. This proud number was exceeded last year; now there are 43,851 dogs, mathematically one for every 36 inhabitants.
The fact that the world is breathing a sigh of relief after the pandemic is also clear from the figures for guest arrivals and overnight stays. Almost seven million guests came to the city last year, which more than doubled the number from 2021, but was still significantly (minus 20.7 percent) behind the values from 2019, when Corona was not yet an issue. Last year, the pandemic was noticeable in the number of guests from China, which maintained its zero-Covid policy for the longest time. Their number fell by 84 percent compared to 2019. A similar decline has been seen in guests from Russia, which invaded Ukraine on February 20, 2022. The number of tourists from the USA fell by 15.1 percent, but with one million overnight stays, guests from the United States remain the undisputed leader.
With all this growth, it is no wonder that the number of motor vehicles has also continued to rise compared to 2021. There are currently 751,125 cars driving through the city when they are not stuck in traffic. 215,881 of them run on diesel (minus 3.8 percent compared to 2021), almost 25,000 are electrically powered (an increase of 60.8 percent) and 88,755 rely on hybrid drive (plus 35.7 percent).
Fewer and fewer people in Munich are hoping for help from above. The number of people leaving the church reached a new high in 2022. Almost 27,000 people turned their backs on the two large churches, which is over 20 percent more than in 2021, which marked the highest level to date with 22,324 people leaving. Calculated per 1,000 inhabitants, the number of people leaving the country is slightly higher among the Protestant population than among the Catholics.
Despite all the change, one thing has remained the same. The ranking of the most popular first names is still led by Emilia, Emma and Mia, while for boys it is Maximilian, Anton and Emil.
The statistical yearbook, which also lists the dates of the state elections on October 8th and has therefore only now been completed, has 380 pages and is available for 18 euros at the city information center on Marienplatz. It can also be ordered through the Statistical Office. The digital version also costs 18 euros.