Germany’s population declined in 2025 for the first time since 2020, with official figures showing a drop of around 110,000 people, according to the federal statistics office Destatis. By the end of the year, the country’s population stood at approximately 83.5 million, marking a decrease of just over 0.13%.
The data shows that migration inflows were not sufficient to offset natural population loss. Net migration remained positive, with about 235,000 more people arriving than leaving, but this was outweighed by a much larger demographic gap: 352,000 more deaths than births over the year.
Destatis noted that the last comparable annual decline occurred in 2020, when pandemic-related travel restrictions sharply reduced migration flows. The 2025 downturn, however, is linked more to long-term demographic trends than to a one-off shock.
Birth rates in Germany reached a historic low in 2025, while political debate on migration intensified during the election campaign, including pledges from Chancellor Friedrich Merz to tighten migration policy. Analysts said the figures were broadly in line with expectations given these conditions.
Population gains were recorded only in the fully urban city-states of Berlin, Hamburg, and Bremen. Elsewhere, trends varied significantly, with former East German states experiencing a sharper decline of around 0.5%, compared to about 0.1% in the regions of the former West Germany. Authorities linked this divergence in part to differences in migrant populations and family structures, including lower birth rates in eastern regions.
