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Regions / Germany

16 states · official figures · checked 20 October 2026

Where to live in Germany

Germany's 16 federal states differ a lot: city states like Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen have large international communities, while some eastern states have far fewer residents from abroad.

Compare the states

Pick a group, then a figure to colour the map. Darker means a higher value – not better or worse. Hover, tap or tab to a region for all its figures; select it for its own page.

Foreign nationals · % of residents · 31 Dec 2025 Source

What it says Share of residents who do not hold German citizenship. A higher share usually means larger international communities and more services used to foreign residents.

What it doesn't Naturalised Germans are not counted. It says nothing about how welcome you will feel.

Population

Latest official estimates, largest first.

German states by population
#StatePopulationShare of the country
1North Rhine-Westphalia17,986,21421.5%
2Bavaria13,245,50315.9%
3Baden-Württemberg11,238,76113.5%
4Lower Saxony8,000,8269.6%
5Hesse6,278,5947.5%
6Rhineland-Palatinate4,123,0224.9%
7Saxony4,026,5994.8%
8Berlin3,700,5774.4%
9Schleswig-Holstein2,958,5193.5%
10Brandenburg2,551,8893.1%
11Saxony-Anhalt2,120,2522.5%
12Thuringia2,078,9462.5%
13Hamburg1,869,4732.2%
14Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania1,573,6851.9%
15Saarland1,007,3421.2%
16Bremen706,9150.8%
Germany83,467,117100%

31 December 2025 · official estimate · Destatis – Population by federal state (Bevölkerungsfortschreibung, Zensus 2022 basis)

Largest cities in Germany by population →

People from your country

Pick your country of birth (in Germany: citizenship) to see where in Germany people from it live – as a number and per 1,000 residents.

Germany counts citizenship, not birthplace: people who became German citizens are not included, and children born in Germany with a foreign passport are. Per 1,000 is calculated by PassPeers from the register count and Destatis population on 30 Nov 2025.

All figures side by side

Select a column heading to sort. Use the filter to narrow the list – regions outside your range fade on the map too.

Filter regions
Foreign nationals %
Moved to Germany from abroad %
Violent right-wing hate crimes per 100k
Right-wing politically motivated crimes per 100k
Recorded crime per 100k
Violent crime per 100k

Germany: figures by state
Immigrant populationHate crimeRecorded crime
State
Bremen23.3%30.9%1.47913,393556.3
Berlin22.5%27.7%2.78213,642536.9
Hamburg19.4%26.8%5.78111,468457.1
Hesse Hessen18.6%24.8%1.0396,002259.2
Baden-Württemberg18.2%23.9%0.7284,902175.6
North Rhine-Westphalia Nordrhein-Westfalen15.8%21.9%0.8357,524299.2
Bavaria Bayern15.5%20.4%0.8284,371163.5
Saarland15.3%18.4%3.2586,558246.1
Rhineland-Palatinate Rheinland-Pfalz14.0%19.7%1.6355,427207.8
Lower Saxony Niedersachsen11.7%17.2%1.1476,329250.4
Schleswig-Holstein10.5%15.2%1.5496,046213.9
Saxony Sachsen8.4%9.3%1.4856,656249.6
Thuringia Thüringen8.4%9.0%5.31166,912247.5
Saxony-Anhalt Sachsen-Anhalt7.9%8.6%3.21428,090301.7
Brandenburg7.4%8.6%4.01396,513212.9
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Mecklenburg-Vorpommern6.5%7.4%4.61456,603244.2
Germany14.9%19.8%1.5516,591254.1

How to read these figures

We don't rank regions as “friendly” or “unfriendly”. No single number can tell you that, and an area's figures don't describe the people you will meet. Use these figures as one input, next to jobs, housing and the people you know there.

Immigrant population

Foreign nationals

% of residents · 31 Dec 2025 · Source

Share of residents who do not hold German citizenship. A higher share usually means larger international communities and more services used to foreign residents.

Naturalised Germans are not counted. It says nothing about how welcome you will feel.

Moved to Germany from abroad

% of residents · 2025 · Source

Share of residents in private households who were born abroad and moved to Germany themselves (Microcensus, “Eingewanderte”), whatever their passport.

A sample survey (first results); people in shared accommodation are not included.

Hate crime

Violent right-wing hate crimes

per 100,000 residents · 2025 · calculated · Source

Violent offences that the police recorded as right-wing politically motivated and as hate crime, per 100,000 residents. Calculated by PassPeers from the Federal Government's case list (Bundestag document 21/5639) and Destatis population on 31 Dec 2025.

Only crimes reported to the police and classed this way. Hate crime from other motives is not included, many incidents are never reported, and small states swing a lot from year to year.

Right-wing politically motivated crimes

per 100,000 residents · 2025 · Source

All offences the police classed as right-wing politically motivated, per 100,000 residents, as published by the Federal Government. In 2025, 74% of xenophobic crimes recorded in Germany fell into this category (BKA).

Includes propaganda offences, damage and insults, not only offences against people. It is not a measure of how people in a state vote or think.

Recorded crime

Read with care: Recorded crime depends on how often people report and how the police record it, and definitions differ from country to country. Compare regions within one country, not across countries.

Recorded crime

per 100,000 residents · 2025 · Source

All criminal offences recorded by the police, per 100,000 residents – the BKA's frequency figure (Häufigkeitszahl) from the Police Crime Statistics (PKS).

Crimes are counted where they happen, so city states with many commuters and visitors show higher rates. Includes offences such as fare dodging, drug possession and breaches of residence law. Unreported crime is missing.

Violent crime

per 100,000 residents · 2025 · Source

Offences the PKS groups as violent crime (Gewaltkriminalität – for example robbery, serious assault, rape and homicide), per 100,000 residents.

Simple assault is not part of this group. Same counting rules as above.

Out and about? Our sister app Stay Safe uses official police data like this, area by area, in 40 countries.

The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) publishes hate crime only for Germany as a whole, so the state figures here come from the Federal Government's answer to a parliamentary question, which covers right-wing motivated crime only.

The PKS also publishes district (Kreis) and city tables; this map shows the 16 states.

Routes into Germany

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