How many people live in Germany? How do they live and work? The 2022 Census results will provide answers to these questions. There are two major objectives: to determine current population figures for Germany and to obtain information on residential space by means of the Census of Buildings and Housing.

The Census results provide the following information:

• Current population figures
• Demographic data such as age, sex and citizenship of inhabitants
• Data on the housing circumstances and situation such as average residential space, rent level, vacancy rates, energy sources for heating, and owner-occupier rates
• Data on households and families
• Data on employment and educational attainment of the population

The results of the 2022 Census are scheduled for release in March 2024. The statistical offices of the Federation and the Länder are currently processing the data and ensuring their quality.

The results will be provided for example in the Census database, which at present contains the results of the 2011 Census. In the database, the data will be available for various regional levels down to the municipality level.

The high-resolution, geo-referenced results will also be published as download files with 1 km and 100 m grid cells.

This also enables the census results to be processed independently of administrative regional units. The data will be available in INSPIRE-compliant format.

The rule for all releases is that a maximum of evaluation opportunities is retained, but the results will not allow any information to be derived on individuals. All data collected for the 2022 Census are evaluated in fully anonymised form. Data which identify individuals, such as names and addresses, were separated from the rest of the data and deleted at the earliest possible stage. There is a confidentiality procedure regarding the releases which makes it impossible to derive any information pertaining to personal data or other individual cases. More information is available on our data protection and information security and census confidentiality webpages.

All results are published as OpenData and can be used free of charge for commercial and non-commercial purposes subject to “Data licence Germany”, provided that the source is cited.

Various factors determine whether and to what extent the results of the 2022 Census can be compared to those of the 2011 Census and across Europe.

Territorial changes since 2011
The number of municipalities and rural districts has decreased in Germany since the 2011 Census. Territorial changes occurred in some Länder, mostly because of mergers of municipalities or districts in order to simplify administration. While the 2011 Census provided results for 11,339 municipalities and 412 urban and rural administrative districts, the latest census counted just 10,786 municipalities and 400 administrative districts as at 15 May 2022, the census reference date.

To enable a comparison across all municipalities for the period since 2011, it is expected that the results of the 2011 Census will also be made available based on the territorial boundaries as at 15 May 2022, the reference date of the 2022 Census.

New variables in 2022
The 2022 Census collected information for the first time on net rents exclusive of heating expenses, the reasons for and the duration of dwelling vacancy, and energy sources for heating. As a consequence, the relevant data cannot be compared with the 2011 Census or earlier population censuses.

Changed or discontinued variables
As the collection of data on some variables, such as immigration, has changed from 2011, the results, are no longer comparable. No information was collected on the availability of a bathroom and toilet facilities.

EU-wide comparability
The census is conducted in all Member States of the European Union. They are obliged to collect population results under the relevant EU regulation. The Member States are at liberty to decide on the methods they use to collect the required data. The EU regulation, however, specifies the variables that have to be covered. Apart from this information, the Member States may collect data on additional variables. This explains why information on the variables rent, reasons for dwelling vacancy, and energy sources for heating, which is collected in Germany, is not available throughout the EU.

Eurostat provides a clear overview of the first EU-wide census results.