Demographics of Germany

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Total fertility rate: 1.42 children born/woman (2004)

Nationality: noun: German(s) adjective: German

Ethnic groups

Germans 91.5%, Turks 2.4%, other 6.1% (made up largely of Serbs, Croats, Italians, Russians, Greeks, Poles, Spaniards, Albanians).

While most of the German citizens are ethnic Germans or naturalized immigrants, there are four other sizable groups of people that have lived in Germany for centuries. They are referred to as "national minorities" (nationale Minderheiten): Danes, Frisians, Roma and Sinti, and Sorbs.

There is a Danish minority (about 50,000, according to government sources) in the most northern-most state of Schleswig-Holstein.

Eastern and Northern Frisians (60,000 inhabitants define themselves as "Frisians") live at Schleswig-Holstein's western coast, and in the north-western part of Lower Saxony. They are part of a wider community (Frisia) stretching from Germany to the northern Netherlands.

The Sorbs, a Slavic people with about 60,000 members, are located in the Lusatia region of Saxony and Brandenburg. They are last remains of the Slavs that lived in central and eastern Germany since the 7th century.

Roma people have been in Germany since the Middle Ages. They were persecuted by the National Socialists, and thousands of Roma living in Germany were killed by the Nazi regime. Nowadays, they are spread all over Germany, mostly living in major cities. It is difficult to estimate their exact number, as the Germany government normally does not keep information on the ethnicity of their citizens. There are also many assimilated Sinti and Roma. A vague figure given by the German Department of the Interior is about 70,000. In the 1990s, many Roma moved to Germany from former Yugoslavia. In contrast to the old-established Roma population, the majority of them does not have the German citizenship, they are classified as immigrants or refugees.

Since the 1960s, ethnic Germans from the Soviet Union came to Germany, especially from Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine. During the time of Perestroika, and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the number of immigrants increased heavily.

Germany now has Europe's third-largest Jewish population. In 2004, twice as many Jews from former Soviet republics settled in Germany as in Israel, bringing the total inflow to more than 200,000 since 1991. Jews have a voice in German public life through the Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland.

See also: Volga German

Religions

Roman Catholic 32.1%, Lutheran 31.8%, Muslim 4.5%, Jewish 0.1%, unaffiliated or other 31.5% (2002)

Languages

German is Germany's official and most-widely spoken language. Standard German is understood all over the country, while dialects - which can be quite distinct from the standard language - are still in use in everyday speech, especially in rural regions. In contrast with France speakers with regional dialects and accents are generally not frowned on or interpreted as uneducated.

English is the most popular foreign language. In secondary education (in some regions even earlier), it is taught as first foreign language almost everywhere. Other languages taught at schools are French, Italian, Spanish, and Russian. Dutch is taught in counties bordering the Netherlands. Latin and Greek are part of the syllabus of classical education which is offered by some secondary schools.

According to a 2004 survey, two thirds of Germany's citizens have at least basic knowledge of English. About 20 % consider themselves as speakers of French, followed by those of Russian (18 %), Italian (6.1 %), and Spanish (5.6 %). The high number of Russian speakers is a result of the GDR's close relation to the Soviet Union - more than a half of the Germans in the East speak Russian, compared to 5.5 % in the western part of the country.

Danish, Low German, Sorbian, and Frisian are officially recognized and protected as minority languages per the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in their respective regions. As speakers of Romany are living in all parts of Germany, the federal government has promised to take action to protect the language. Until now, Hesse is the only Land that has followed Berlin's announcement and implemented concrete measures to support speakers of Romany.