Friday, July 18
Berlin is growing faster than expected: Four million by 2036
A new internal report suggests that the population of Germany’s capital city is growing faster than expected, with the total number of residents projected to surpass four million as early as 2036.
Despite growth in recent decades, the city still has fewer inhabitants than it did 100 years ago. The largest population ever recorded in Berlin was around 4.4 million, measured just before or during the Second World War. The post-war years and the division of the city led to a sharp decline, with only 3.1 million inhabitants recorded in the mid-1970s. In recent years, however, numbers have begun to rise again – and the city is now on track to reach a new all-time high.
Despite this growth, Berliners are not having children. The city has the lowest birth rate in Germany, and without immigration, the population would actually shrink by 270,000 over the period covered by the report. It is thanks to immigration, then, that growth is expected to continue, with 109,000 new residents projected to arrive by 2040.
