Germany's population rose to an all-time high of 84.3 million people in 2022, driven by record net immigration, the Federal Statistical Office, more commonly known as Destatis, reported on Thursday.

"This was the highest number of inhabitants ever recorded at the end of a year," Destatis said in a statement.

According to a first estimate, the country's population grew by 1.1 million people.

More migrants arriving than leaving 

"The strong growth was caused by record net immigration," Destatis said.

The statistics office estimated that between 1.42 to 1.45 million more people came to Germany than had moved abroad.

Most immigrants were people fleeing the war in Ukraine, but there was also a "significant" increase in people from elsewhere.

"This means that net immigration was more than four times higher than in the previous year and higher than at any time since the beginning of the time series," Destatis said.

At the same time, the number of births has declined, and the number of deaths has increased.

The number of births fell by about 7% compared to 2021 and is expected to be between 735,000 and 745,000.

In 2022, 1.06 million people died, 4% more than in the previous year.

lo/ar (dpa, KNA, Reuters)

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