As of 31 December 2025, Berlin had 3,700,577 inhabitants, making it Germany's most populous city and the most populous city proper in the European Union. Foreign nationals numbered 833,213, accounting for 22.5% of all inhabitants. Recent population growth has been driven primarily by migration.
History
The city responded to the 1685 revocation of the Edict of Nantes in France with the Edict of Potsdam, which guaranteed religious freedom and tax-free status to French Huguenot refugees for ten years. Thanks to its role as the capital of rising Prussia, the population grew steadily: it surpassed the 100,000 mark in 1747 and the one-million mark in 1877.
Growth accelerated in the 19th century with the industrialisation after the Napoleonic Wars and the Prussian Reforms. Only about 40% of Berliners in the last quarter of the 19th century were natives of the city. Nevertheless, Berlin's population remained ethnically and even regionally very homogeneous: In 1895, over 98% of inhabitants spoke German as their native language. Among the rest were 12,000 Polish speakers, 700 Russophones and about 2,000 other Slavs. In 1900, most of the 1.9 million Berliners originated from the eastern provinces of Prussia. A fifth hailed from the surrounding province of Brandenburg, 9% from the provinces of West and East Prussia, 7% from Silesia, 6% from Pomerania, 5% from Posen, 4% from Saxony. Only about 3 to 4% had come to the city from other German regions and only about 1.5% from abroad, mostly from Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire.The four largest groups among the selected countries of origin reported by the Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg for residents with a migration background. The published borough-level data do not include every country of origin.
Between 1913 and 1917, the population fell by about 16% down to 1.744 million people, mostly due to men serving in World War I, but recovered somewhat after the armistice, reaching 1.928 million people in December 1919. In December 1917, during the latter part of the war, there were 58,152 military personnel and 4,017 prisoners-of-war in the city.
Greater Berlin and interwar growth The industrialisation had brought about a rapid expansion of the suburbs, many of them developed explicitly for workers of specific factories, e.g. Siemensstadt and Borsigwalde. The Greater Berlin Act of 1920 (Groß-Berlin-Gesetz) boosted the population by incorporating many hitherto autonomous towns and cities, e.g. Spandau and Köpenick at the margins of the modern metropolis, but also Charlottenburg, nowadays almost in the heart of the city. The city approximately reached its modern extent, growing from to . This expansion made Berlin the most populous city proper of Continental Europe in the interwar period (though not the largest agglomerationParis had a more populous agglomeration although the city proper was much smaller, cf. Paris#Media) and the third-largest in the world behind London and New York. The four-million mark was surpassed in the 1920s.
Nazi rule and World War II During the 1930s, Berlin's population remained relatively stable. The 1939 census recorded around 4.33 million inhabitants, making it the last major population count before the outbreak of the Second World War. The city's demographic composition was also transformed by Nazi persecution. Berlin's Jewish population, which numbered around 160,000 people in 1933, declined sharply as many emigrated and others were later deported.
In 1942, the officially registered population reached its maximum of 4.48 million, although because of the war conditions, this was an overestimation. More likely estimates based on food rationing data show lower numbers of 3.95 million people in February 1942 and only 3.11 million people in February 1944 (incl. 177,000 foreigners) when aerial attacks approached its most intense phase.
Post-war division and migration In the context of the more general huge population movements in immediately post-war Germany, a significant part of Berlin's pre-war population permanently resettled to other parts of Germany or abroad. A 1946 census counted 436,600 Berliners in the western occupation zones and 306,823 in the Soviet zone. In 1950, this number had risen to 518,218 in what had now become the Federal Republic. Since the end of World War II, the city population has been fluctuating between 3 and 3.5 million, with a low of less than 3.1 million from the mid-1970s to mid-1980s. Between 1950 and 1961, so between the establishment of the Soviet-backed German Democratic Republic and the construction of the Berlin Wall, most of the losses were incurred by East Berlin, while West Berlin showed modest growth of 2.3%.
Moving to West Berlin was attractive for those from West Germany who wished to avoid the draft from 1957 to 1990, because the special administrative status of the city meant that the draft could not be enforced there.
From the late 1960s, West Berlin experienced substantial labour migration, particularly from Turkey. By 1971, around 50,000 people of Turkish origin lived in West Berlin, rising to almost 120,000 by 1981. Many migrant workers subsequently settled permanently, while family reunification contributed to the growth of immigrant communities. Turkish settlement became concentrated in several inner-city districts, including Kreuzberg, Neukölln and Wedding. Berlin has been described as having the largest Turkish community outside Turkey.
East Berlin also received contract workers from other socialist states through the GDR's state-organised labour migration programmes. Workers from Vietnam became the largest group of contract workers in the GDR and were employed in considerable numbers in East Berlin.
Migration after reunification Following German reunification, Berlin received substantial numbers of Aussiedler and Spätaussiedler, particularly ethnic German resettlers and their family members from the former Soviet Union. From 1993, new arrivals in this category were officially designated Spätaussiedler. Migration from the former Soviet Union also included Jewish immigrants and their relatives.
Berlin also received substantial numbers of refugees from the Yugoslav Wars, particularly from Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1996, around 32,000 Bosnian war refugees were recorded in Berlin.
Berlin experienced another major migration wave during the European refugee crisis of 2015–2016. Over the two years, Berlin recorded a combined net migration gain from abroad of around 93,700 people, largely driven by the arrival of asylum seekers. The largest net inflows during these two years were those from Syria (25,600), Afghanistan (8,100) and Iraq (6,600). The rapid increase in arrivals exceeded existing accommodation capacity, leading to the conversion of sports halls and other buildings, including the hangars of the former Tempelhof Airport, into emergency shelters.
The migration wave also contributed to Berlin's development as an important centre of Arab cultural and intellectual life in Europe.
The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine triggered another major migration wave to Berlin. About 50,000 Ukrainian refugees moved to the city in 2022 alone. Migration from Ukraine continued in subsequent years, although at lower levels. By the end of 2025, 61,885 Ukrainian citizens lived in Berlin, making them the city's second-largest foreign citizenship group after Turkish citizens.
According to estimates by the state government, Berlin's population is expected to grow to 4.006.000 inhabitants in the year 2040. The expected growth is entirely the result of domestic and international migration as deaths are forecast to exceed live births.
Statistics
Year Population 1250 1,200 1307 7,000 1400 8,500 1576 12,000 1600 9,000 1631 8,100 1648 6,000 1654 6,197 1685 17,500 1690 21,500 1698 22,400 1700 29,000 1709 55,000 1712 61,000 1750 113,289 1775 136,137 1800 172,132 1825 219,968 December 3, 1840 ¹ 322,626 December 3, 1846 ¹ 408,500 December 3, 1849 ¹ 418,733 Year Population December 3, 1852 ¹ 426,600 December 3, 1855 ¹ 442,500 December 3, 1858 ¹ 463,600 December 3, 1861 ¹ 524,900 December 3, 1864 ¹ 632,700 December 3, 1867 ¹ 702,400 December 1, 1871 ¹ 826,341 December 1, 1875 ¹ 969,050 December 1, 1880 ¹ 1,122,330 December 1, 1885 ¹ 1,315,287 December 1, 1890 ¹ 1,578,794 December 2, 1895 ¹ 1,678,924 December 1, 1900 ¹ 1,888,848 December 1, 1905 ¹ 2,042,402 December 1, 1910 ¹ 2,071,257 December 1, 1916 ¹ 1,712,679 Year Population December 5, 1917 ¹ 1,681,916 October 8, 1919 ¹ 1,902,509 June 16, 1925 ¹ 4,024,286 June 16, 1933 ¹ 4,242,501 May 17, 1939 ¹ 4,338,756 August 12, 1945 ¹ 2,807,405 October 29, 1946 ¹ 3,170,832 December 31, 1950 3,336,026 December 31, 1960 3,274,016 December 31, 1970 3,208,719 December 31, 1980 3,048,759 December 31, 1990 3,433,695 December 31, 2000 3,382,169 September 30, 2005 3,394,000 December 31, 2010 3,460,725 December 31, 2013 3,517,424 December 31, 2016 3,670,622
City size
Municipality
On 31 December 2015, the city-state of Berlin had a population of 3,520,031 registered inhabitants in an area of . Berlin in 2009 was estimated to have another 100,000 to 250,000 non-registered inhabitants. The city's population density was 4,048 inhabitants per km2. Berlin is the most populous city proper in the EU.
Urban area The urban area of Berlin comprised about 4.1 million people in 2014 in an area of , making it the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union.Demographia: World Urban Areas. Retrieved 6 September 2015. The urban agglomeration of the metropolis was home to about 4.5 million in an area of .
Metropolitan area As of 2014, the functional urban area was home to about 5 million people in an area of approximately .Population on 1 January by age groups and sex – functional urban areas, Eurostat. Retrieved 29 September 2016. The entire Berlin-Brandenburg capital region has a population of more than 6 million in an area of . Hauptstadtregion Berlin-Brandenburg
Population Berlin population statistics are published using two different statistical bases. The official population figure (Bevölkerungsfortschreibung) is based on the census and is subsequently updated for births, deaths and migration. Separate population-register statistics (Einwohnerregisterstatistik) are based on residents registered with their main residence in Berlin and provide more detailed data for boroughs and smaller geographical areas. At the end of 2025, the official population was 3,700,577, while the population register listed 3,913,644 residents with their main residence in the city.
In 2025, Berlin recorded 33,230 births and 37,575 deaths, resulting in a natural population decrease of 4,345. This was the fourth consecutive year in which deaths exceeded births. The total fertility rate was 1.18 children per woman, the lowest since 2003. Net migration of 19,699 more than offset the natural decrease, and the city's population grew by 0.4%.
Boroughs The following figures are based on Berlin's population register and refer to residents registered with their main residence in the city.