What do statistics reveal about Germany 35 years after reunification?

To mark 35 years since German reunification, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) has released a series focusing on statistical differences between eastern and western federal states today. What story does it tell?

Germany marks 35th Tag de Deutschen Einheit

On October 3, 2025, Germany will mark 35 years since eastern Germany (GDR) became part of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and Germany was reunified.

After Germany lost World War II, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Thuringia, and East Berlin would be run as a satellite state of the Soviet Union, while West Berlin and the other 10 federal states would be administered by the remaining Allied powers, Britain, France and the United States.

At the start of 1989, GDR boss Erik Honecker proclaimed - despite the Soviets being bankrupt - the Berlin Wall would be standing “in 50 years or 100 years”. It fell on November 9 that same year, the German Democratic Republic was dissolved in 1990, and the Federal Republic was reunified after 41 years. 

“[E]veryone [initially] assumed that for the time being East Germany would remain a separate state,” James Hawes writes in The Shortest History of Germany. “After all, uniting would surely be an incredibly complex process, needing the involvement of all international partners and demanding full, open public debate within Germany, followed by an election specifically concerned with it.”

It was not the case. Instead, the Western German CDU/CSU triumphed with 44 percent of the vote at the 1990 election, hundreds of thousands of East Germans left for western states and Germany’s new chancellor, Helmut Kohl (CDU), was named “Kanzler der Einheit” (“Chancellor of Unity”).

35 years later, Destatis’ new series on statistical differences between western and eastern federal states suggests reunification wasn’t so simple after all. How do population, cohabitation, housing, economics, equality, wealth and income statistics compare today?

More people in western Germany, fewer people in the eastern states

In 1990, there were 61,6 million people living in western federal states and 14,8 million people in eastern federal states. Between 1990 and 2024, the overall population has grown by 5 percent to 83,6 million people, but not equally across the country. 

The initial exodus of East Germans to western federal states continued in the first 10 years following reunification. The population has since grown by 10 percent to 67,5 million in western federal states and decreased by 16 percent to 12,4 million in eastern federal states. 

But large cities in eastern states buck this trend. Between 1990 and 2024 the population of Berlin has grown by 7 percent. The population of Leipzig has grown by 30 percent, and in Dresden by 20 percent, while the overall population of Saxony decreased by 15 percent.

Like all countries across the world and throughout history, Germany is a country of migration. However, Destatis only began recording the German population’s “migration history” (Einwanderungsgeschichte) in 2005. Today, 25,6 percent of the overall population has a family history of migration or have themselves migrated to Germany. 

In Bremen, 39,5 percent of the population reported having an “Einwanderungsgeschichte”, the largest proportion in any federal state. Hamburg followed, where 34,5 percent said they have a family history of migration, then Berlin (34,3 percent), Hesse (32,7 percent) and Baden-Württemberg (31,6 percent).

Fewer families and more people living alone

Since Germany reunified, the birthrate has decreased, and the number of people living alone has increased, from 14 percent in 1991 to 21 percent in 2024. The number of children born into families has also decreased from 22,4 million to 19,8 million.

Same-sex relationships were decriminalised in 1968 in East Germany and 1969 in West Germany. Indeed, on the night the Berlin Wall fell, the first and only feature film addressing homosexuality made in East Germany premiered. 

The federal republic only legalised same-sex marriage in 2017, and until recently, there has been a statistical information gap on so-called “Regenbogenfamilien” (rainbow families). What we do know is that in 2024, there were 31.000 same-sex couples with children living in Germany.

If people in Germany choose to have children and get married, they are waiting longer to do it. In 1991, the average age of women in Germany at the birth of their first child was 26,9 years old. In 2024, this has increased to 30,4 years old.

Back in 1991, men in the western states were saying “I do” at an average age of 28,7 years old, compared to 34,7 years old in 2024. In 1991, men in eastern states were tying the knot at 26,6 years old, compared to 38,6 years old.

Today, couples in both eastern and western federal states are staying married for longer than they did in 1991, but still only for an average of 14,5 years in eastern states and 14,7 years in western states. In 2023, approximately 36 out of every 100 marriages in Germany ended in divorce.

Germany is still a country of tenants

Germany is a member of the European Union with the highest proportion of renters. 52 percent of residents in Germany rent, rather than own their homes. Even former Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) rented a home in Potsdam while serving his term.

But there are grand regional differences. Far more people who own homes in western federal states live in said homes, while those who own homes in eastern states rent them out.

For example, 59 percent of people who own a home in Saarland live in that home, 54 percent in Rhineland-Palatinate and 52 percent in Baden-Württemberg, compared to just 34 percent in Saxony, 22 percent in Hamburg, 16 percent in Berlin and 14 percent in Leipzig.

And tenants across Germany are paying wildly different amounts per square metre. According to 2022 figures, tenants in Saxony-Anhalt pay the least, an average 5,38 euros per square metre, compared to those in Bavaria who pay an average of 8,74 euros per square metre.

In many western cities, average rents per square metre break the 10-euro mark, 12,89 euros in Munich, 10,58 euros in Frankfurt and 10,39 euros in Stuttgart. In Potsdam, the eastern German city with the highest rents per square meter, tenants pay an average of 7,85 euros.

Of course, those in western federal states are also earning less than their eastern neighbours. In 1991, employees in western federal states had double the average income of those in eastern states (1.987 euros per month compared to 924 euros). In 2024, employees in the western states earn an average of 4.810 euros per month compared to 3.073 euros in eastern states.

To read the full 35 Jahre Deutsche Einheit series (in German), head to the Destatis website.