The oldest universities of Germany are also among the oldest and best regarded in the world

With its central position in Europe, Germany is a transport hub. This is reflected in its dense and modern transport networks. The motorway (Autobahn) network ranks as the third-largest worldwide in length and is known for its lack of a general speed limit.[116] Germany has established a polycentric network of high-speed trains. The InterCityExpress or ICE network of the Deutsche Bahn serves major German cities as well as destinations in neighbouring countries with speeds up to 300 kph (186 mph).[117] The largest German airports are Frankfurt Airport and Munich Airport, both hubs of Lufthansa, while Air Berlin has hubs at Berlin Tegel and Düsseldorf. Other major airports include Berlin Schönefeld, Hamburg, Cologne/Bonn and Leipzig/Halle. Both airports in Berlin will be consolidated at a site adjacent to Berlin Schönefeld, which will become Berlin Brandenburg Airport.[118]
In 2008, Germany was the world's sixth-largest consumer of energy,[119] and 60% of its primary energy was imported.[120] Government policy promotes energy conservation and renewable energy commercialisation. Energy efficiency has been improving since the early 1970s; the government aims to meet the country's electricity demands using 40% renewable sources by 2020 and 100% by 2050.[121] In 2010, energy sources were: oil (33.7%); coal, including lignite (22.9%); natural gas (21.8%); nuclear (10.8%); hydro-electric and wind power (1.5%); and other renewable sources (7.9%).[122] In 2000, the government and the nuclear power industry agreed to phase out all nuclear power plants by 2021.[123] Germany is committed to the Kyoto protocol and several other treaties promoting biodiversity, low emission standards, recycling, and the use of renewable energy, and supports sustainable development at a global level.[124] The German government has initiated wide-ranging emission reduction activities and the country's overall emissions are falling.[125] Nevertheless the country's greenhouse gas emissions were the highest in the EU in 2010.

Germany's achievements in the sciences have been significant, and research and development efforts form an integral part of the economy.[127] The Nobel Prize has been awarded to 103 German laureates.[128] For most of the 20th century, German laureates had more awards than those of any other nation, especially in the sciences (physics, chemistry, and physiology or medicine).[129][130]
The work of Albert Einstein and Max Planck was crucial to the foundation of modern physics, which Werner Heisenberg and Max Born developed further.[131] They were preceded by such key physicists as Hermann von Helmholtz, Joseph von Fraunhofer and Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit, among others. Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays and was the first winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901.[132] Otto Hahn was a pioneer in the fields of radioactivity and radiochemistry and discovered nuclear fission,[133] while Ferdinand Cohn and Robert Koch were founders of microbiology. Numerous mathematicians were born in Germany, including Carl Friedrich Gauss, David Hilbert, Bernhard Riemann, Gottfried Leibniz, Karl Weierstrass, Hermann Weyl and Felix Klein. Research institutions in Germany include the Max Planck Society, the Helmholtz Association and the Fraunhofer Society. The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize is granted to ten scientists and academics every year. With a maximum of €2.5 million per award it is one of highest endowed research prizes in the world.[134]
Germany has been the home of many famous inventors and engineers, such as Johannes Gutenberg, credited with the invention of movable type printing in Europe; Hans Geiger, the creator of the Geiger counter; and Konrad Zuse, who built the first fully automatic digital computer.[135] German inventors, engineers and industrialists such as Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, Otto Lilienthal, Gottlieb Daimler, Rudolf Diesel, Hugo Junkers and Karl Benz helped shape modern automotive and air transportation technology.[136] Aerospace engineer Wernher von Braun developed the first space rocket and later on was a prominent member of NASA and developed the Saturn V Moon rocket, which paved the way for the success of the US Apollo programme. Heinrich Rudolf Hertz's work in the domain of electromagnetic radiation was pivotal to the development of modern telecommunication.[137]
Germany is one of the leading countries in developing and using green technologies. Companies specialising in green technology have an estimated turnover of €200 billion. Key sectors of Germany's green technology industry are power generation, sustainable mobility, material efficiency, energy efficiency, waste management and recycling, and sustainable water management

With a population of 80.2 million according to the May 2011 census,[7] Germany is the most populous country in the European Union, the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and ranks as the 16th most populous country in the world.[139] Its population density stands at 225 inhabitants per square kilometre. The overall life expectancy in Germany at birth is 80.19 years (77.93 years for males and 82.58 years for females).[1] The fertility rate of 1.41 children born per woman (2011 estimates), or 8.33 births per 1000 inhabitants, is one of the lowest in the world.[1] Since the 1970s, Germany's death rate has continuously exceeded its birth rate.[140] The Federal Statistical Office of Germany has forecast that the population could shrink to between 65 and 70 million by 2060 (depending on the level of net migration).[141] However, such forecasts have often been proven wrong in the past, and Germany is currently witnessing increased birth rates[142] and migration rates since the beginning of the 2010s. It is notably experiencing a strong increase in the number of well-educated migrants.[143][144] In 2012, 300,000 more immigrants than emigrants were reported in Germany.[145]


Development of German population since 1800
Germans by nationality make up 92.3% of the population of Germany.[7] As of 2011 and about six million foreign citizens (7.7% of the population) were registered in Germany.[7] Regarding ethnic background, 20%[2] of the country's residents, or more than 16 million people, were of foreign or partially foreign descent (including persons descending or partially descending from ethnic German repatriates), 96% of whom lived in the former West Germany or Berlin.[146] In 2010, 2.3 million families with children under 18 years were living in Germany, in which at least one parent had foreign roots. They represented 29% of the total of 8.1 million families with minor children. Compared with 2005 – the year when the microcensus started to collect detailed information on the population with a migrant background – the proportion of migrant families has risen by 2 percentage points.[147]
Most of the families with a migrant background live in the western part of Germany. In 2010, the proportion of migrant families in all families was 32% in the pre-unification territory of the Federal Republic. This figure was more than double that in the new Länder (including Berlin) where it stood at 15%.[147] Families with a migrant background more often have three or more minor children in the household than families without a migrant background. In 2010, about 15% of the families with a migrant background contained three or more minor children, as compared with just 9% of the families without a migrant background.[147]
The United Nations Population Fund lists Germany as host to the third-highest number of international migrants worldwide, about 5% or 10 million of all 191 million migrants.[148] As a consequence of restrictions to Germany's formerly rather unrestricted laws on asylum and immigration, the number of immigrants seeking asylum or claiming German ethnicity (mostly from the former Soviet Union) has been declining steadily since 2000.[149] In 2009, 20% of the population had immigrant roots, the highest since 1945.[150] As of 2008, the largest national group was from Turkey (2.5 million), followed by Italy (776,000) and Poland (687,000).[151] About 3 million "Aussiedler"—ethnic Germans, mainly from the former eastern bloc—have resettled in Germany since 1987.[152] Large numbers of people with full or significant German ancestry are found in the United States,[153] Brazil,[154] Argentina[155] and Canada.[156] Most ethnic minorities (especially those of non-European origin) reside in large urban areas like Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Rhine-Ruhr, Rhine-Neckar and Munich. The percentage of non-Germans and immigrants is rather low in rural areas and small towns, especially in the East German states of the former GDR territory

Christianity is the largest religion in Germany, with around 51.5 million adherents (62.8%) in 2008.[163] Relative to the whole population, 30.0% of Germans are Catholics, 29.9% are Protestants belonging to the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), and the remaining Christians belong to smaller denominations each with less than 0.5% of the German population.[164] Protestantism is concentrated in the north and east and Roman Catholicism is concentrated in the south and west;[13] 1.6% of the country's overall population declare themselves Orthodox Christians.[163]
The second largest religion is Islam with an estimated 3.8 to 4.3 million adherents (4.6% to 5.2%),[165] followed by Buddhism with 250,000 and Judaism with around 200,000 adherents (0.3%); Hinduism has some 90,000 adherents (0.1%). All other religious communities in Germany have fewer than 50,000 adherents.[166] Of the roughly 4 million Muslims, most are Sunnis and Alevites from Turkey, but there are a small number of Shi'ites and other denominations.[165] German Muslims, a large portion of whom are of Turkish origin, lack full official state recognition of their religious community.[13] Germany has Europe's third largest Jewish population (after France and the United Kingdom).[167] Approximately 50% of the Buddhists in Germany are Asian immigrants.[168]
Germans with no stated religious adherence make up 34.1% of the population and are concentrated in the former East Germany and major metropolitan areas.[164] German reunification in 1990 greatly increased the country's non-religious population, a legacy of the state atheism of the previously Soviet-controlled East. Christian church membership has decreased in recent decades, particularly among Protestants.[13]
Languages


The German language is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union, with around 100 million native speakers.[169]
Main article: Languages of Germany
German is the official and predominant spoken language in Germany.[170] It is one of 23 official languages in the European Union, and one of the three working languages of the European Commission.
Recognised native minority languages in Germany are Danish, Low German, Sorbian, Romany, and Frisian; they are officially protected by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The most used immigrant languages are Turkish, Kurdish, Polish, the Balkan languages, and Russian. 67% of German citizens claim to be able to communicate in at least one foreign language and 27% in at least two languages other than their own.[170]
Standard German is a West Germanic language and is closely related to and classified alongside English, Low German, Dutch, and the Frisian languages. To a lesser extent, it is also related to the East (extinct) and North Germanic languages. Most German vocabulary is derived from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family.[171] Significant minorities of words are derived from Latin and Greek, with a smaller amount from French and most recently English (known as Denglisch). German is written using the Latin alphabet. German dialects, traditional local varieties traced back to the Germanic tribes, are distinguished from varieties of standard German by their lexicon, phonology, and syntax.


Over 99% of Germans age 15 and above are estimated to be able to read and write.[1] Responsibility for educational supervision in Germany is primarily organised within the individual federal states. Since the 1960s, a reform movement attempted to unify secondary education in a Gesamtschule (comprehensive school); several West German states later simplified their school system to two or three tiers. A system of apprenticeship called Duale Ausbildung ("dual education") allows pupils in vocational training to learn in a company as well as in a state-run vocational school.[174] This successful model is highly regarded and reproduced all around the world.[175]
Optional kindergarten education is provided for all children between three and six years old, after which school attendance is compulsory for at least nine years. Primary education usually lasts for four to six years and public schools are not stratified at this stage.[174] In contrast, secondary education includes three traditional types of schools focused on different levels of academic ability: the Gymnasium enrols the most gifted children and prepares students for university studies; the Realschule for intermediate students lasts six years; the Hauptschule prepares pupils for vocational education.[176]

Wendelstein 7-X, a research facility at Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics close to the University of Greifswald. A great portion of German research is exhibited in independent institutes.
The general entrance requirement for university is Abitur, a qualification normally based on continuous assessment during the last few years at school and final examinations; however there are a number of exceptions, and precise requirements vary, depending on the state, the university and the subject. Germany's universities are recognised internationally; in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) for 2008, six of the top 100 universities in the world are in Germany, and 18 of the top 200.[177] Most of the German universities are public institutions, charging tuition fees of only around €60 per semester (and up to €500 in the state of Niedersachsen) for each student.[178][179] Thus, academic education is open to most citizens and studying is increasingly common in Germany.[180] Although the dual education system, that combines practical and theoretical educations and does not lead to academic degrees, is typical for Germany and recognised as a role model for other countries.[181]
The oldest universities of Germany are also among the oldest and best regarded in the world, with Heidelberg University being the oldest (established in 1386 and in continuous operation since then). It is followed by Leipzig University (1409), Rostock University (1419), Greifswald University (1456), Freiburg University (1457), LMU Munich (1472) and the University of Tübingen (1477).
Most German universities focus more on teaching than on research. Research is mostly exhibited in independent institutes that are embedded in academic clusters, such as within Max Planck, Fraunhofer, Leibniz and Helmholtz institutes. This German specialisation is rarely reflected in academic rankings, which is the reason why German universities seem to be underperforming according to some of the ratings, such as ARWU. Some German universities are shifting their focus more towards research though, especially the institutes of technology