| |
| Capital |
| Berlin (population 3.39 million). |
| |
| Area |
| 221,716 square miles |
| |
| Population |
82.5 million, of which more than 7 million are foreigners. Germany is the most populated country in Europe.
The population is mainly comprised of two groups of the Caucasian race. The first is Alpine, which is concentrated in the central and southern regions; the population of the Teutonic group lives mainly in the northern zone.
Similar to other European countries, Germany suffers from the problem of an aging society. The population continues to grow, but there are ever fewer children. Thus, in recent years immigration by students from other parts of the world, such as Latin America, has increased. |
| |
| Language |
| German is the official language of the country and is spoken by almost all of its citizens. There are various regional dialects, some of which differ significantly from High German. The only significant linguistic minority is comprised of 100,000 Sorbs (descendents of the Slavic tribes that the Germans called the Wends in medieval times). |
| |
| Religion |
| Forty-five percent of Germans are protestants, mainly Lutheran. Forty percent of the population is Catholic, while two percent are Muslim and nearly 30,000 Jews live in Germany. |
| |
| Government |
| Democratic-parliamentary confederation. 16 federated states. The federal government, which is an executive constitutional body, is comprised of the Federal Chancellor and federal ministers, who form the Cabinet, or Council of Ministers. The Federal Chancellor exercises the most important political power in the German Federal Republic and is elected every four years by the Bundestag (Lower House) at the proposal of the Federal President. The Federal President represents the Federation under international law and vouches for diplomatic representatives. The Bundestag (Lower House) is the parliament of the German Federal Republic and is the highest federal legislative body. |
| |
|
