Berlin population predicted to reach 4 million by 2040

The population of Berlin is expected to reach 4 million by 2040, according to a prediction from the city’s senate. The district of Treptow-Köpenik is expected to see the largest growth.

Berlin population will grow to 4 million by 2040

According to forecasts from the Berlin senate, the capital’s population is likely to reach 4.006 million by 2040. The population is currently around 3.902.645, according to July 2025 figures from the Berlin and Brandenburg Statistical Office.

Statisticians at the city senate predict that between now and 2040, the population will grow in eight of Berlin’s 12 districts, while four districts will see population decline. Treptow-Köpenik, Berlin’s largest district by area, is expected to see the greatest population growth.

The current population of Treptow-Köpenik (around 300.000 people) is expected to increase by around 9,8 percent. Lichtenberg, the ninth-largest district by area with a population of around 311.000, is predicted to see the second-largest growth. Around 25.000 more people are expected to settle in Lichtenberg by 2040.

Berlin’s population will get older

As well as growing, Berlin’s population is expected to get older in the coming years. The current average age in the capital is 42,3, and is expected to increase to 42,9 by 2040.

More specifically, the number of people aged between 65 and 80 is expected to grow by 15,2 percent to a total of around 556.500 people. The number of people of age to work, those aged 18 to 65, is expected to grow by 3 percent, and the number of children and young people is expected to decrease by 4,3 percent.

Germany’s birthrate continued to decline in 2024, falling to 1,35 children per woman, but the decline was slower than in 2022 and 2023. Berlin is the federal state with the lowest birthrate in the country, at 1,21 babies per woman in 2024.

All of these predictions, “present a particular challenge for city development politics,” Senator for Building and Housing Christian Gaebler (SPD) told local public broadcaster rbb. Berlin, and Germany more broadly, needs both more young people to be able to balance its pension insurance system in the near future, and is facing the worst affordable housing shortage in 20 years.