History: Germany has the second highest population and the largest economy in Europe. After the Second World War, Germany was occupied by the allied forces of UK, US, France and Russia. Two German states were formed in 1949: the Western Federal Republic of Germany and the Eastern German Democratic Republic. The two states were reunited again in 1990. Lots of funds were invested to uplift the Eastern part to Western standards. Germany is a key member of Europe's economic, political and defence organisations. In 1999 Germany took the EURO as their currency.
Population: approximately 82.400.000
Median Age: 43 Years
Ethnic groups:
- 91.5% are German
- 2.4 % are Turkish
- 6% are from other countries mainly from Greece, Italy, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Croatia, Spain etc.)
Religion:
- 34% are Roman Catholic
- 34% are Protestant
- 3.7 % are Muslim
- 28 % other or do not have a religion
GDP: about 1,90 trillion in 2006
Economy: Germany has a powerful economy - the fifth largest in the world. The economy showed improvement in 2006 after facing a long stagnation period. The stagnation between 2001-2005 was influenced by the declining level of investment in plant and equipment, company restructuring, flat domestic consumption, structural rigidities in the labour market, lack of competition in the service sector and high interest rates. The unemployment rate of 7% is chronically high. Welfare and market reforms had been realised by the former government and the current government is initiating reform measures like increasing the retirement age from 65-67. Germany's population, like most other western countries, is aging and security outlays exceeded security contributions. In 2006 Germany's budget deficit was within the EU's 3% debt limit.
Estimated GDP growth rate: 2.7%
Labour force: 43 million people and unemployment rate is about 7%
An estimated 11% of the population live below the poverty line (2001)
(Source: CIA Factbook)
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