Strong population growth has pushed Germany to a new milestone: for the first time ever, more than 84 million people now live in the federal republic. Migration from Ukraine was one of the primary causes of population growth in the first half of 2022. 

84 million people living in Germany in first half of 2022

In the first half of 2022, Germany’s population rose above 84 million for the first time in history. As the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reported on Monday, on June 30, 2022, 843.000 more people were living in Germany than at the end of 2021 - a population growth of 1 percent.

Destatis wrote in a press release that a population increase of this magnitude has only been seen a couple of times since German Reunification: in 1992, when the opening of the borders in eastern Europe and the war in Yugoslavia saw 700.000 people arrive; and in 2015 when Germany opened its borders to nearly 1 million refugees. 

Immigration from Ukraine drives German population growth

The population increase in the first half of 2022 can largely be attributed to the arrival of Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion. Net immigration to Germany (the number of arrivals minus the number of departees) reached 1 million people in the first six months of the year - almost seven times higher than in the first half of 2021 - and 750.000 of net migration was from Ukraine. 

This trend is further illustrated by the age and gender breakdown of the new arrivals: the number of women and girls living in Germany rose significantly more in the first half of 2022 (up by 1,2 percent or 526.000) than the number of men and boys (up by 317.000 or 0,8 percent). This reflects the fact that mainly women and children fled Ukraine before the war. 

Deaths continue to outstrip births

At the same time, however, the excess of deaths over births continued to have a dampening effect on population growth. 161.000 more people died than were born in Germany in the first half of the year.

All federal states in Germany saw their populations increase: the strongest rises were recorded in Berlin (+1,3 percent), followed by Bavaria and Hesse (both +1,2 percent). Bremen (+0,5 percent), Thuringia (+0,6 percent) and Saarland (+0,7 percent) experienced the smallest increases.