Population of Germany - 82,431,390.

The German population has grown significantly older since the mid 20th century. As in many industrialised countries this is due to declining birth rates and the accompanied decrease of family size. On the other hand the number of single-parents and one-person households are rising.

Many Germans live in urban areas. The country has 12 metropolises with more than 500,000 residents and over three dozen cities with more than 200,000.

The population density is highest in the north-west, especially in the old industrial area of the Ruhr Valley, and lowest in the former East Germany and the states of Schleswig-Holstein and Bavaria.

The official language is German. Beside the standard High German there are many regional dialects; most notably in Cologne, Rural Bavaria, Swabia and Saxony. Another quite distinctive one is Low German (Plattdeutsch) which sounds like Dutch and is spoken in the coast areas of the northwest. In Eastern Germany the Sorb minority speaks its own language.

German is the second most popular language of Europe after English.

German is the third most taught language in the world.

On the Internet it’s the second most used language after English.

Most German schoolchildren are taught English so most people in the former Western Germany can speak English. In the former Eastern Germany Russian was taught until Unification so it’s harder to find English speakers there.