At the end of 2025, Germany’s population was estimated at about 83.5 million, roughly 100,000 fewer people than the 83.6 million recorded at the end of 2024. The only years since the year 2000 that the population fell were 2003‑2010 and the pandemic year 2020; between 2011 and 2024 the population grew every year except 2020.
Every year since German reunification in 1990, the number of deaths has exceeded the number of births. In 2025, the gap between births and deaths widened, while net migration declined sharply. Because the migration surplus could no longer cover the birth‑death deficit – a first time since 2020 – the overall population contracted.
In 2025, civil registry data project 640,000 to 660,000 births (for comparison, 677,117 were born in 2024). Deaths were just over one million (1,010,000 in 2024). This yields a birth deficit of 340,000 to 360,000 people in 2025, which has remained above the 300,000‑person mark since 2022. The previous year’s deficit was 330,641, whereas the 2010s saw an average deficit of only 171,423.
Net migration also fell sharply. In the first ten months of 2025, Germany attracted 220,000 more people than it sent abroad, versus a 391,500‑person surplus in the corresponding period of 2024. For the full year, the migration balance is estimated at 220,000 to 260,000, at least 40 % lower than the 430,183 recorded in 2024. Net migration in 2020 was similarly low (220,251). Across 1990‑2024, the average annual migration surplus was 356,000, a figure that has since declined.
