Over a million Germans disappear

Germany’s Federal Statistics Office has shaved 1.3 million people from the country’s population after a random sampling showed the widely accepted figured of 82.2 million was too high. That's almost as high as the population in Munich, Bavaria's capital city.

Published: 23 July 2008 12:33 CEST

Now who will fill the beer hall benches? More for the rest of us... Photo: DPA

Germany now officially only had 80.9 million residents at the end of 2007, the Statistics Office reported this week.

“Due to the dramatic demographic changes affecting Germany since the last census and the large gap in time since the last sampling the figures for population growth have become more and more imprecise,” the Statistics Office said in a statement.

Although Europe’s largest country’s has been shrinking for years, the news confirms that Germany’s low birthrate is having a dramatic impact on the size of the population. The government is planning to take a new national census in 2011.