PEOPLE

Population: The total population of Germany is, 81,471,834 (may 2011).

Age structure: 0-14 years: 13.3% (male 5,569,390/female 5,282,245)

15-64 years: 66.1% (male 27,227,487/female 26,617,915)
65 years and over: 20.6% (male 7,217,163/female 9,557,634) (2011 est.)

Median age:

Total: 44.9 years

male: 43.7 years
female: 46 years (2011 est.)

Population growth rate:

-0.208% (2011 est.)

Net migration rate:

0.54 migrant(s)/1,000 populations (2011 est.)

Sex ratio:

At birth: 1.055 male(s)/female

under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.72 male(s)/female
total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2011 est.)

Infant mortality rate:

Total: 3.54 deaths/1,000 live births

male: 3.84 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 3.21 deaths/1,000 live births (2011 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:

Total population: 80.07 years

male: 77.82 years
female: 82.44 years (2011 est.)

Total fertility rate:

1.41 children born/woman (2011 est.)

3
Religions: Protestant 34%, Roman Catholic 34%, Muslim 3.7%, unaffiliated or other 28.3%.
Christianity is the largest religion in Germany. Roman Catholicism was the sole established
religion in the country in the 15th century, but the Reformation changed this drastically. In 1517
Martin Luther challenged the Catholic Church as he saw it as a corruption of Christian faith.
Through this, he altered the course of European and world history and established Protestantism.
The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) was one of the most destructive conflicts in European
history. The war was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved
most of the countries of Europe. The war was fought largely as a religious conflict between
Protestants and Catholics in the Holy Roman Empire. Despite recent losses in adherents,
Christianity is still by far the largest religion in Germany, with the Protestant Evangelical Church
in Germany (EKD) comprising 29.9% as of 31 December 2008 (down 0.3% compared to the
30.2% in the year before) of the population and Roman Catholicism comprising 30.7% as of Dec.
2008 (also down 0.3% compared to the year before). Consequently a majority of the German
people belong to a Christian community although many of them take no active part in church life
with Sunday church attendance considerably less than 10 percent of which 4.1% Catholics (in
2008) and 1.2% Protestants (in 2007) belonging to the EKD 1.7% of the population are
Orthodox Christians Independent and congregational churches exist in all larger towns and many
smaller ones, but most such churches are small. One of these is the confessional Lutheran
Church called Independent Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Germany.

Languages: The Germany people are speaking German. German is a West Germanic
language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. Spoken by approximately 100
million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and the most widely
spoken first language in the European Union. German-speaking communities can be found in the
former German colony of Namibia, independent from South Africa since 1990, as well as in the
other countries of German emigration such as the US, Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic,
Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Venezuela (where the dialect Alemán
Coloniero developed), South Africa and Australia. In Namibia, German Namibians retain
German educational institutions. Large numbers of people with full or significant German
ancestry are found in the United States (approx. 50 million), Brazil (est. 5 million) and Canada
(approx. 3 million). In Brazil the largest concentrations of German speakers are in Rio Grande do
Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch developed), Santa Catarina, Paraná, Sao Paulo and
Espírito Santo. There are also important concentrations of German-speaking descendants in
Argentina, Venezuela, Paraguay and Chile. In the 20th century, over 100,000 German political
refugees and invited entrepreneurs settled in Latin America, in countries such as Costa Rica,
4
Panama, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic, to establish German-speaking enclaves, and
reportedly there is a small German immigration to Puerto Rico. Nearly all inhabitants of the city
of Pomerode in the state of Santa Catarina in Brazil can speak German. High German is divided
into Central German, High Franconian (a transitional dialect), and Upper German. Central
German dialects include Ripuarian, Moselle Franconian, Rhine Franconia, Central Hessian, East
Hessian, North Hessian, Thuringian, Silesian German, Lorraine Franconian, Mittelalemannisch,
North Upper Saxon, High Prussian, Lausitzisch-Neumärkisch and Upper Saxon. It is spoken in
the southeastern Netherlands, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg, parts of France, and parts of
Germany approximately between the River Main and the southern edge of the Lowlands.
Modern Standard German is mostly based on Central German, but it should be noted that the
common (but not linguistically correct) German term for modern Standard German is
Hochdeutsch, that is, High German.The Moselle Franconian varieties spoken in Luxembourg
have been officially standardised and institutionalised and are therefore usually considered a
separate language known as Luxembourgish.The two High Franconian dialects are East
Franconian and South Franconian.Upper German dialects include Northern Austro-Bavarian,
Central Austro-Bavarian, Southern Austro-Bavarian, Swabian, East Franconian, High Alemannic
German, Highest Alemannic German, Alsatian and Low Alemannic German. They are spoken in
parts of the Alsace, southern Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, and the German-speaking parts of
Switzerland and Italy.Wymysorys is a High German dialect of Poland, and Sathmarisch and
Siebenbürgisch are High German dialects of Romania. The High German varieties spoken by
Ashkenazi Jews (mostly in the former Soviet Union) have several unique features, and are
usually considered as a separate language, Yiddish. It is the only Germanic language that does
not use the Latin alphabet as its standard script.

5
Education: Germany, a land of innovation, invention and ideas is the most preferred
destination for foreign students. International standards in education, science and research play a
central role in making the country one of the knowledge hubs of Europe. The country has one of
the world's best and most extensive school and university systems. Internationally recognized
qualifications and comparatively lower costs of education are the two key factors that allure
students from all corners of the world. Some people are better suited to a traditional classroom-
based education, while others may gain from vocational training or on-the-job training coupled
with classroom instructions. The education system in Germany is fashioned in such a manner
that it can address the needs of a wide and varied population. The roots of the German education
system go back to the middle Ages when church schools were established. The first university
was founded in 1386 in Heidelberg followed by the ones established in Cologne, Leipzig,
Freiburg, etc. These universities trained only a small group of intellectual elites. In the 16th
century, the Reformation led to the establishment of universities along narrow sectarian lines.
But by eighteenth century, elementary schools had been separated from the influence of churches
and had come under the direction of state authorities. Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835), a
scholar from Berlin may be credited with a host of reforms that have shaped the German
education system. He proposed university-level training for high school teachers and modernized
and modified the structure as well as the curriculum of the Gymnasium or the preparatory school.
He wanted an orientation phase after the Gymnasium and a qualifying examination known as the
Abitur for admissions to university. In 1810 he founded a university in Berlin. He also
introduced the three principles of academic freedom, unity of teaching and research, and self-
government by the professors that guided German universities. Similarly, Friedrich Froebel
brought about many modifications at the kindergarten level in 1837. In 1957, Council of
Education was established to serve as an advisory committee for the entire education system.

Internationally, Germany is one of the most popular countries (along with the USA and
the UK) for students from all over the world to take admissions. The Heidelberg University,
University of Berlin, University of Bremen, University of Leipzig, Frankfurt University, etc. are
some of the best centers of education in the world. As per the Basic Law or the Constitution, the
education system in Germany is the responsibility of the individual state governments. Thus,
German universities and institutes are run by the individual federal states. It acts as a sponsor for
young academics, talented persons and also for the exchange programs for trainees, students and
academics. Universities in Germany have also opened up their portals for new and innovative
means of learning. Introduction of E-learning is an initiative in this direction as it opens up
avenues of entirely new opportunities to schools, universities, research facilities, business and
industry. This “electronically-supported learning” utilizes the benefits of different multimedia
technologies, and specially the Internet. This makes learning easy, fast, and above all free from
the dimensions of place and time German schools cater to the needs of providing a good standard
of basic learning to all the students. They provide for nine years of compulsory education to all

6
children, without any discrimination. The concept of compulsory education was introduced in
Germany as early as in 1659, in the state of Bavaria. In 1717, it was introduced for the first time
in Prussia also. This provision protects children from all forms of social discrimination and
isolation and brings about their integration across all sections of the society. This free and
compulsory education is a significant aspect of German democratic set-up as it gives an equal
chance to even the socially disadvantaged classes to seek knowledge. German schools are based
on a pattern where at the age of six, children start attending a primary school, and after four
years, they move on to a variety of secondary schools like Hauptschule, Realschule, Gymnasium,
etc. There are also Gesamtschulen, in which all children of compulsory school age are taught in
parallel classes, depending on their individual abilities. They move from one stream to another
depending on their level of learning. In Hauptschulen, grades 5 to 9 are compulsory, and 10th
grade is voluntary. Realschule covers grades 5 to 10 and is halfway between Hauptschule and a
Gymnasium. The children leave with a “Mattered Reife” certificate. Gymnasium provides in-
depth education and students graduate from Gymnasium after the 12th or 13th grade with a
High-School Certificate. A Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural
Affairs of the Lander coordinates the policies related to schooling, as each Federal state has its
own laws for schools.

Germany- Science & Research: Albert Einstein (1879–1955), a genius, who emigrated from
Germany in 1933, gave a new dimension to the concept of space and time by his theory of
Relativity (E=mc²). In 1995, it was the Germans who made the dream of MP3 player become a
reality. A team at the Fraunhofer Institute, under Karlheinz Brandenburg, developed this method
of audio compression. The country also has to its credit a total of 76 Nobel Prize winners till
date, 65 of whom have won the prize for their contributions to the natural sciences or medicine.
The very first Nobel Prize for Physics went in 1901 to Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen for”a new type
of ray”. Robert Koch, Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, Horst L.
Stormier, Herbert Kroemer, Wolfgang Ketterle, Theodor Hänsch, etc. are some of the German
winners of this prestigious honor.

7
Health:

Year Birth rate Rank Percent Change Date of Information

2003 8.6 222 2003 est.
2004 8.33 222 -3.14 % 2004 est.
2005 8.33 223 0.00 % 2005 est.
2006 8.25 224 -0.96 % 2006 est.
2007 8.2 219 -0.61 % 2007 est.
2008 8.18 220 -0.24 % 2008 est.
2009 8.18 219 0.00 % 2009 est.
2010 8.21 219 0.37 % 2010 est.
2011 8.3 219 1.10 % 2011 est.

Infant mortality rate: total: 3.54 deaths/1,000 live births

male: 3.84 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 3.21 deaths/1,000 live births (2011)

Germany has Europe's oldest universal health care system, with origins dating back to Otto von
Bismarck's Social legislation, which included the Health Insurance Bill of 1883, Accident Insurance Bill of
1884, and Old Age and Disability Insurance Bill of 1889. As mandatory health insurance, these bills
originally applied only to low-income workers and certain government employees; their coverage, and
that of subsequent legislation gradually expanded to cover virtually the entire population. Currently 85%
of the population is covered by a basic health insurance plan provided by statute, which provides a
standard level of coverage. The remainder opts for private health insurance, which frequently offers
additional benefits. According to the World Health Organization, Germany's health care system was 77%
government-funded and 23% privately funded as of 2004. The government partially reimburses the
costs for low-wage workers, whose premiums are capped at a predetermined value. Higher wage
workers pay a premium based on their salary. They may also opt for private insurance. This may result in
substantial savings for younger individuals in good health. With age and illness, private premiums will
rise and the insured will usually cancel their private insurance, turning to the government option. The
health care reform law that took effect on January 1, 2004, aimed at reducing health insurance costs and
required payroll deductions. Costs were to be reduced by introducing more competition into the health
care system and requiring higher co-payments by the insured. Related savings were estimated at US$12
billion in 2004 and US$26 billion in 2005. In conjunction with the cost reductions, payroll contributions
were expected to decline below 14 percent in 2004 and below 13 percent in 2005. Germany has a
universal multi-payer system with two main types of health insurance. Germans are offered three
mandatory health benefits, which are co-financed by employer and employee: health insurance,
accident insurance, and long-term care insurance. Accident insurance for working accidents
(Arbeitsunfallversicherung) is covered by the employer and basically covers all risks for commuting to
work and at the workplace. Covers cases in which a person is not able to manage his or her daily routine
(provision of food, cleaning of apartment, personal hygiene, etc.). It is about 2% of a yearly salaried
income or pension, with employers matching the contribution of the employee. There are two separate
types of health insurance: public health insurance (Gesetzliche Krankenversicherung) and private

8
insurance (Private Krankenversicherung). Both systems struggle with the increasing cost of medical
treatment and the changing demography. About 87.5% of the persons with health insurance are
members of the public system, while 12.5% are covered by private insurance (as of 2006).