Demographics of Berlin
In December 2019, the city-state of Berlin had a population of 3,769,495 registered inhabitants in an area of. The city's population density was 4,227 inhabitants per km2. Berlin is Germany's largest city and the Largest cities of the [European Union by population within city limits|most populous city proper in the European Union].
In December 2015, there were 621,075 registered residents of foreign nationality, originating from approximately 190 countries.
History
The city responded to the 1685 revocation of the Edict of Nantes in France with the Edict of Potsdam, which guaranteed religious freedom and tax-free status to French Huguenot refugees for ten years. Thanks to its role as the capital of rising Prussia, the population grew steadily: it surpassed the 100,000 mark in 1747 and the one-million mark in 1877.Growth accelerated in the 19th century with the industrialisation after the Napoleonic Wars and the Prussian Reforms. Only about 40% of Berliners in the last quarter of the 19th century were natives of the city. Nevertheless, Berlin's population remained ethnically and even regionally very homogeneous: In 1895, over 98% of inhabitants spoke German as their native language. Among the rest were 12,000 Polish speakers, 700 Russophones and about 2,000 other Slavs. In 1900, most of the 1.9 million Berliners originated from the eastern provinces of Prussia. A fifth hailed from the surrounding province of Brandenburg, 9% from the provinces of West and East Prussia, 7% from Silesia, 6% from Pomerania (1815–1945)|Pomerania], 5% from Posen, 4% from Saxony. Only about 3 to 4% had come to the city from other German regions and only about 1.5% from abroad, mostly from Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire.
Between 1913 and 1917, the population fell by about 16% down to 1.744 million people, mostly due to men serving in World War I, but recovered somewhat after the armistice, reaching 1.928 million people in December 1919. In December 1917, during the latter part of the war, there were 58,152 military personnel and 4,017 prisoners-of-war in the city.
The industrialisation had brought about a rapid expansion of the suburbs, many of them developed explicitly for workers of specific factories, e.g. Siemensstadt and Borsigwalde. The Greater Berlin Act of 1920 boosted the population by incorporating many hitherto autonomous towns and cities, e.g. Spandau and Köpenick at the margins of the modern metropolis, but also Charlottenburg, nowadays almost in the heart of the city. The city approximately reached its modern extent, growing from to. This expansion made Berlin the most populous city proper of Continental Europe in the interwar period and the third-largest in the world behind London and New York.
The four-million mark was surpassed in the 1920s, and in 1942, the officially registered population reached its maximum of 4.48 million, although because of the war conditions, this was an overestimation. More likely estimates based on food rationing data show lower numbers of 3.95 million people in February 1942 and only 3.11 million people in February 1944 when aerial attacks approached its most intense phase.
In the context of the more general huge Germans (1944–50)|population movements] in immediately post-war Germany, a significant part of Berlin's pre-war population permanently resettled to other parts of Germany or abroad. A 1946 census counted 436,600 Berliners in the western occupation zones and 306,823 in the Soviet zone. In 1950, this number had risen to 518,218 in what had now become the Federal Republic. Since the end of World War II, the city population has been fluctuating between 3 and 3.5 million, with a low of less than 3.1 million from the mid-1970s to mid-1980s. Between 1950 and 1961, so between the establishment of the Soviet-backed German Democratic Republic and the construction of the Berlin Wall, most of the losses were incurred by East Berlin, while West Berlin showed modest growth of 2.3%.
Moving to West Berlin was attractive for those from West Germany who wished to avoid the draft from 1957 to 1990, because the special administrative status of the city meant that the draft could not be enforced there.
Asylum policies in West Berlin triggered waves of immigration during the 1960s and 1970s. Berlin is home to about 250,000 Turks, the largest Turkish community outside Turkey.
During the 1990s, the Aussiedlergesetze enabled immigration to Germany of residents of the former Soviet Union. Ethnic History of [Germans in Russia and the Soviet Union|Germans] from countries from the former Soviet Union make up the largest portion of the Russian-speaking community. Immigration continues from a number of Western countries, particularly by young people from Germany and other parts of Europe.
The number of Arabic speakers in Berlin could be higher than 150,000. There are at least 40,000 Berliners with Syrian citizenship, third only behind Turkish and Polish citizens. The 2015 refugee crisis made Berlin Europe's capital of Arab culture.
Berlin is among the cities in Germany that have received the biggest amount of refugees after the [Russian invasion of Ukraine|2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine]. As of November 2022, estimated 85,000 Ukrainian refugees were registered in Berlin, making Berlin the most popular destination of Ukrainian refugees in Germany.
According to estimates by the state government, Berlin's population is expected to grow to 4.006.000 inhabitants in the year 2040. The expected growth is entirely the result of domestic and international migration as deaths are forecast to exceed live births.
Statistics
City sizeMunicipalityOn 31 December 2015, the city-state of Berlin had a population of 3,520,031 registered inhabitants in an area of. Berlin in 2009 was estimated to have another 100,000 to 250,000 non-registered inhabitants. The city's population density was 4,048 inhabitants per km2. Berlin is the most populous city proper in the EU.Urban areaThe urban area of Berlin comprised about 4.1 million people in 2014 in an area of, making it the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union. The urban agglomeration of the metropolis was home to about 4.5 million in an area of.Metropolitan areaAs of 2014, the functional urban area was home to about 5 million people in an area of approximately. The entire Berlin-Brandenburg capital region has a population of more than 6 million in an area of.PopulationIn 2014, the city state Berlin had 37,368 live births, a record number since 1991. The number of deaths was 32,314. Almost 2 million households were counted in the city. 54 percent of them were single-person households. More than 337,000 families with children under the age of 18 lived in Berlin. In 2014 the German capital registered a migration surplus of approximately 40,000 people.BoroughsNationalitiesAs of December 2013, people about 42 percent of the population living in Berlin has an immigrant background, with significant differences in their distribution. The immigrant community is diverse, with Middle Easterners, smaller numbers of East Asians, Sub-Saharan Africans and other European immigrants, Eastern Europeans forming the largest groups. Since the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the European Union there has been a Romani influx. About 70,000 Afro-Germans live in Berlin.There are more than 25 non-indigenous communities with a population of at least 10,000 people, including Turkish, Kurdish, Polish, Russian, Croatian, Palestinian, Serbian, Italian, Bosnian, Vietnamese, American, Romanian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Austrian, Ghanaian, Ukrainian, French, British, Spanish, Israeli, Thai, Iranian, Egyptian and Syrian communities. Residents without a migration background in Berlin tend to live in the former parts of East Berlin, while parts where the former West Berlin used to be are more diverse.
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Germany