German census shows 1.5m fewer inhabitants than assumed

About 80.2 million inhabitants live in Germany, 1.5 million less than the assumed 82 million population updates used so far, according to the latest census results released Friday. "Compared with the number of inhabitants applicable so far on the basis of official intercensal population updates, there were about 1.5 million fewer inhabitants in Germany on the census reference date than assumed so far," said Roderich Egeler, President of the Federal Statistical Office, at a press conference held in Berlin to present the results of the 2011 Census. According to the census results, about 74 million, or 92.3 percent, of the 80.2 million inhabitants had the German citizenship as of May 9, 2011, while about 6.2 million inhabitants had a foreign citizenship. The office said in a statement that the survey showed a drop of about 14.9 percent, or nearly 1.1 million, in the number of foreigners living in Germany than assumed so far. A total 15 million persons with a migrant background lived in Germany, just under 19 percent of the population, the survey showed. The census also showed that about 40 million people in Germany were in employment. About 2.1 million people were unemployed. The last comprehensive censuses were conducted seperately in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1987 and in the German Democratic Republic in 1981. Before the release of 2011 census results, projections derived from last population counts had been used.