Berlin continues to grow: Almost 4 million inhabitants by 2040

Created: 2022-10-04Updated: 2022-10-04 2:29 PM

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More and more people live in Berlin.

The corona pandemic only weakened the growth.

According to forecasts, the number of inhabitants will increase significantly in the future.

This brings with it numerous problems.

Berlin - Berlin's population continues to grow - especially in the immediate next few years.

According to the current Senate report on the population forecast, around 3.963 million people will live in the capital by 2040.

This was announced by Berlin's Mayor and Senator for Culture, Klaus Lederer (left), on Tuesday after the Senate had discussed the issue.

For the current year alone, an increase in the number of residents by around 65,000 is expected, in particular due to Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and the associated immigration of people seeking protection to Berlin.

According to the report presented by the Senate Department for Urban Development, the number of residents will increase continuously in the years up to 2040.

For the year 2025, the forecast is for around 3.871 million people in Berlin, around 96,000 more than in 2021.

In 2030, the population will then rise to 3.909 million, which is an increase of around 134,000 people compared to the base year.

Roughly half of the predicted increase would thus be attributable to the first four years of the forecast.

Berlin must therefore prepare for rapid population growth - along with the corresponding need not only for significantly more apartments.

According to the data, there will be an increase of around 187,000 people in 2040 compared to 2021, which would be an increase of around 5 percent.

Lederer pointed out that the age structure of the Berlin population will also change: According to the forecast, the number of children and young people under the age of 18 will increase by 39,000 (6.3 percent) by 2040, but the number of older people over 65 will still increase significantly stronger by 80,000 (11 percent).

According to this, the number of very old people aged 80 and over increases by 8,000 (3.5 percent).

The bottom line is that the average age of Berliners will increase slightly by 2040 - from 42.9 to 43.2 years.

However, more residents mean more problems for the Senate.

The significant increase in population over the next four years underscores the challenges facing Berlin, said Urban Development Senator Andreas Geisel (SPD).

The pressure on the housing market will not ease.

"So new apartments urgently need to be built in order to relax the market, but also daycare centers and schools." Geisel pointed out that it was necessary to ensure that public transport and private transport could keep up with the increase in population .

The topic of housing construction was a central concern at the start of the red-green-red government coalition and not least of the Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD).

It is increasingly doubted whether one of the core goals of increasing the number of newly built apartments in Berlin to an average of 20,000 per year and thus slowing down the rise in rents can be achieved.

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Rising construction costs, a shortage of skilled workers in construction and some supply bottlenecks for building materials are making the Senate's new building plans significantly more difficult.

The population forecast clearly shows that the need is there.

dpa