The tallest, healthiest & best-paid states: Germany in numbers 2019

The year is coming to a close and that can only mean one thing - the new Statistical Yearbook from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) is here! As we all know, the Germans like a statistic, and so every year since 1952 Destatis has released a collection of facts and figures that present the “state of play” in Germany - and they make for interesting reading!  

German Statistical Yearbook 2019

However, with this year’s Yearbook numbering a whopping 716 pages, it would take you until next Christmas to finally read the whole thing - so we’ve done the hard work for you and trawled through it for some choice stats. 

For anyone who's ever wondered where the tallest people in Germany live, who pays the highest rent or where the salaries are biggest, here it is: Germany in 2019, in numbers. 

Population

The population might be rapidly ageing, but high levels of migration are just about keeping things on track - the number of people living in the federal republic grew slightly to a grand total of 82,8 million at the end of 2017, just under a quarter (24,1 percent) of whom are non-German. But just where do all these people live? Here are the stats:

• Biggest foreign population - North Rhine-Westphalia (2.299.000)
• Smallest foreign population - Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (69.000)
• Most common country of origin for new migrants: Poland

The map below is colour-coded to show which states have the highest concentration of residents with a migrant background. The darker the colour, the higher the proportion of non-Germans to Germans. 

Family 

Love, relationships, family - they may seem like deep, layered concepts to you - but that doesn’t mean Germany can’t quantify them with stats! Did you know that every fourth woman who died in Germany in 2019 was aged 90 or over? Here are some other interesting insights from 2019: 

• Births - 784.884
• Deaths - 932.263
• Average age of first-time mothers - 29,8
• Average number of children per woman - 1,6
• Life expectancy at birth - 83,22 years
• Marriages - 407.466
• Divorces - 178.154
• Average age at first marriage (men) - 38,3
• Average age at first marriage (women) - 35,4

Education

The number of students enrolled in Germany reached a record high this year - and so too did the number of foreign students! But where in Germany are all these brainy people, what are they studying and where do they come from? We’ve got the low-down: 

• Total number of students - 2.863.609
• State with biggest student population - North Rhine-Westphalia (789.536)
• Most popular subject area - Law, Economics and Social Sciences
• Most common countries of origin for foreign students - China (35 in every 1.000 students), India (15), the Russian Federation (11) and Austria (11)

Health

As a nation, Germany is known for being fond of hearty food and beer - rather than being particularly health conscious. So how do the different federal states measure up when it comes to health matters? 

• Tallest people in Germany - Hamburg, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein (average height 1,73 metres)
• Shortest people - Saarland, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia (1,71 metres)
• Heaviest people - Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (average weight 79,2 kilos)
• Lightest people - Berlin (75,1 kilos)
• Highest proportion of smokers - Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (29,6 percent)
• Lowest proportion of smokers - Bavaria (20,6 percent)
• Highest spend on healthcare - Hamburg (5.408 euros per case)

Living

As ever, concern over rapidly-spiralling housing costs dominated headlines this year - so it might surprise you to know that the average basic rent in Germany is just 6,72 euros per square metre. On the other end of the scale, around 17 percent of households spend more than 40 percent of their monthly income on rent. Here are some other interesting stats on housing in Germany: 

• Home ownership rate - 45,5 percent
• Average apartment size - 93,7m2
• Average household size - 2,1 people
• Smallest apartments in Germany - Hamburg and Berlin (39m2 per capita)
• Highest consumption of water - Hamburg (140 litres per day)

Income & Working

The number of people working in Germany reached a record high of 46,2 million in 2018 and the number of people claiming unemployment benefits sank further, to 3,4 percent of the population. Here are the stats for a record year of work in Germany:

• Average full-time working hours - 39,2 hours per week
• Average yearly wage for full-time employee - 51.000 euros
• Highest average hourly salary - Hamburg (24,13 euros)
• Lowest average hourly salary - Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (17,16 euros)

The map below is colour-coded to show where average hourly salaries are highest in Germany. The darker the colour, the higher the wage. 

Transport 

In 2017, a whopping 70,808 million people were transported in Germany. Here’s a breakdown of the stats for all things transportation. 

• Passengers transported by buses and trams - 9,592 million
• Passengers transported by train - 2,831 million
• Passengers transported by private vehicle - 58,172 million 

There are also 24 major airports in Germany, from which over 1,24 million flights took off, transporting 223 million passengers and 4,9 million tonnes of goods. The busiest airports this year were: 

• Frankfurt am Main - 253.000 takeoffs
• Munich - 202.000
• Düsseldorf - 106.000
• Berlin Tegel - 91.000
• Hamburg - 71.000

Weather

As you might have noticed, the weather in Germany was unusually warm this year. This is reflected in the stats, which show that the overall average temperature was significantly above the long-term average. There was also less rainfall than the long-term average in every month except January and December. This year, Berlin had 2.300 hours of sunshine. 

The graph below shows the temperature (orange) and precipitation (dark blue) in 2018, compared with the long-term averages (yellow and light blue). 

Enough stats for you?

If you’re hungry for more information, you can get your hands on all of the statistics in the Statistical Yearbook 2019 (in German).