Strange surprises revealed by the census in Germany
The German Statistical Office publishes at regular intervals the results of the latest census, which was conducted between May 2022 and January 2023, raises a lot of eyebrows, and allows comparison of statistical estimates with the reality on the ground.
Germany discovered that its population is 1.4 million less than statisticians had thought so far, although the population has risen by 2.5 million since the date of the last census in 2011, reaching about 84 million.
Although there are 10.9 million foreigners currently living in Germany, 4.8 million more than in the last census of 2011, this number was 1 million fewer than expected so far, a contradiction whose reasons are not fully understood, according to the German statistical office.
This marked discrepancy is a headache for some municipal councils because it has bad consequences for their finances, since municipal allocations are partly determined according to the number of inhabitants, and has been interpreted by the Census Office as many foreigners left the country without completing the deregistration procedure from municipal registers, which is mandatory in principle.
Surprisingly, there are so many empty apartments and houses in these times of severe real estate crisis, and statisticians have pointed out that there are 1.9 million uninhabited houses, a third of which can be used, or about 700,000 homes, in three months, and the cost of housing today is one of the most pressing social problems.
There are 43.1 million housing units in the country, which is more than enough to meet the needs of about 84 million people if well exploited, but empty housing actually indicates population movements within the country, as it’s mainly found in rural areas of eastern and central Germany, while large cities and their suburbs show high rates of population growth.
Apart from the census, last year’s final immigration figures were published at the end of June, with net arrivals incomes minus departure, reaching 663,000, still representing a 55% decrease compared to the previous year, which is statistically record.
