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Germany: cities by population

By James Burfield, SEO consultant, Bath · Page updated · UN World Population Prospects

Germany has a population of 83,644,258 (UN estimate, 2026), with Berlin as its capital. The 50 largest of its 11,044 recorded towns and cities, ranked.

+2%
since 2000 (81,797,258)
-6%
projected by 2050 (78,294,613)
240
people per km²
19501975200020252050 69.8M 78.3M
UN estimates to 2026; the dashed line is the medium-variant projection to 2050, a forecast rather than a measurement. Source: World Population Prospects 2024.
Full UN series, 1950 to 2050
YearPopulation
195069,847,782
197578,701,865
200081,797,258
200582,046,731
201080,830,924
201582,077,550
202083,628,708
202584,075,075
202683,644,258
2030 projected82,780,953
2050 projected78,294,613

Medium variant. Figures from 2026 onward are projections, not measurements.

Figures are the latest available in GeoNames (CC BY 4.0), which draws on national censuses of varying dates — treat them as recent, not same-year. Country totals are UN World Population Prospects 2024 (medium variant) where the UN lists the country separately; the handful it reports under a parent state keep a GeoNames figure and are marked as such. Sources & method.

Largest cities in Germany

#PlaceRegionPopulation
1BerlinState of Berlin3,426,354
2HamburgHamburg1,973,896
3MunichBavaria1,505,005
4KölnNorth Rhine-Westphalia1,024,621
5Frankfurt am MainHesse650,000
6DüsseldorfNorth Rhine-Westphalia618,685
7StuttgartBaden-Wurttemberg612,663
8EssenNorth Rhine-Westphalia593,085
9DortmundNorth Rhine-Westphalia588,462
10DresdenSaxony564,904
11BremenBremen546,501
12NurembergBavaria515,543
13HannoverLower Saxony515,140
14LeipzigSaxony504,971
15DuisburgNorth Rhine-Westphalia504,358
16BochumNorth Rhine-Westphalia385,729
17WuppertalNorth Rhine-Westphalia360,797
18BielefeldNorth Rhine-Westphalia331,906
19BonnNorth Rhine-Westphalia330,579
20MünsterNorth Rhine-Westphalia308,258
21MannheimBaden-Wurttemberg307,960
22AugsburgBavaria301,105
23WiesbadenHesse288,850
24KarlsruheBaden-Wurttemberg283,799
25GelsenkirchenNorth Rhine-Westphalia270,028
26AachenNorth Rhine-Westphalia265,208
27MönchengladbachNorth Rhine-Westphalia261,742
28KielSchleswig-Holstein252,668
29ChemnitzSaxony247,220
30BraunschweigLower Saxony244,715
31MagdeburgSaxony-Anhalt244,329
32KrefeldNorth Rhine-Westphalia237,984
33Halle (Saale)Saxony-Anhalt237,865
34FreiburgBaden-Wurttemberg237,460
35MainzRheinland-Pfalz222,889
36OberhausenNorth Rhine-Westphalia219,176
37ErfurtThuringia218,793
38LübeckSchleswig-Holstein212,207
39HagenNorth Rhine-Westphalia198,972
40RostockMecklenburg-Vorpommern198,293
41KasselHesse197,230
42PotsdamBrandenburg184,754
43SaarbrückenSaarland182,971
44HammNorth Rhine-Westphalia178,967
45MülheimNorth Rhine-Westphalia173,050
46HerneNorth Rhine-Westphalia172,108
47DarmstadtHesse167,029
48OsnabrückLower Saxony166,462
49SolingenNorth Rhine-Westphalia164,359
50Ludwigshafen am RheinRheinland-Pfalz163,196

Twenty years earlier: Germany in the 2005 World Gazetteer — population then 82,726,188.

Common questions

What is the population of Germany?
Germany has a population of 83,644,258, the UN World Population Prospects estimate for 2026. The UN's medium-variant projection for 2050 is 78,294,613 — a forecast, not a measurement.
What is the capital of Germany?
Berlin.

Go deeper

Berlin
The largest place we record in Germany: 3,426,354 people
Germany in 2005
The World Gazetteer's archive edition: 82,726,188 then
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