Historical internal migration
ρ = 0.70Spearman · n=16German-national cumulative internal migration balance, female minus male, all ages, 2000–25.
Data stories16 Länder · 19 cohorts · one date
Living demographic atlas · Germany · 2025
Where Are Young Women Missing?
Germany has more women than men overall. Among 18–29-year-olds, the national majority reverses—and the regional gap opens sharply.
Enter the evidenceGermany overall1,027
women per 1,000 men
Ages 18–29912
a national male majority
Lowest Land856
Sachsen-Anhalt · ages 18–29
01 · The national reversal
912
women for every 1,000 men among 18–29-year-olds.
The aggregate is correct. It is also almost useless for understanding younger Germany.
At the end of 2025, Germany had 1,027 women for every 1,000 men. But the national female majority changes sign when the population is separated by age: 947 girls per 1,000 boys under 18, 912 women among 18–29-year-olds, 969 at ages 30–49, 1,011 at ages 50–64, and 1,260 at 65 and above.
At ages 18–29, no Land reaches parity. Sachsen-Anhalt, Brandenburg and Thüringen record 856, 862 and 867 women per 1,000 men. Hamburg, at 998, comes closest. The same national total therefore contains very different regional demographic regimes.
Biology, mortality, mobility and cohort history all enter these numbers. The headline compresses them. The atlas below opens them back up.
02 · Regional atlas
A national female majority that disappears in young adulthood
Select an age layer, then choose any Land. The atlas, ranking and crossover chart stay linked.Schematic tile atlaspositions approximate · values exact
fewer womenfemale majorityparity 1,000
Linked ranking · 18-29
Every Land, measured against parity
Choose a row to carry that Land through the story.Linked crossover
Every line crosses from a younger male majority
Endpoints compare broad age groups; the tooltip adds each Land’s durable single-age crossover.03 · Population shape studio
Two Länder, one national baseline, nineteen cohorts
Germany remains fixed. Overlay two regional silhouettes, isolate a series from the legend, then inspect any cohort.Hover to isolate · click to hold
CohortMen / women · % of total population
All 16 Länder
Same 5.2% scale. Choose a card to replace Land A.04 · Mechanism tests
Migration aligns most closely. Alignment is not explanation.
All panels contain the same 16 Länder. Labels begin with eight diagnostic cases and can expand to all sixteen.Vertical axis · women / 1,000 men · ages 18–29
Student intensity
ρ = 0.11Spearman · n=16Student numerator is counted by institution location; denominator is residents aged 18–29.
Employment-rate gap
ρ = -0.26Spearman · n=16Employment-rate difference for ages 20–29, female minus male.
Rank association across 16 Länder. Descriptive alignment only; none of these panels identifies a causal effect.
05 · Composition
Nationality composition widens the male majority in every Land
The flow conserves the observed population stock; the dumbbell shows the same comparison for all sixteen Länder.Observed stock · Sachsen-Anhalt
A Sankey-like decomposition without a migration claim
Ribbon width represents residents at 31 December 2025. This is a conserved stock, not movement over time.German nationals927women / 1,000 men
- Men
- 94,920
- Women
- 87,984
- Share of stock
- 79.5%
Foreign nationals626women / 1,000 men
- Men
- 29,034
- Women
- 18,161
- Share of stock
- 20.5%
Nationality composition · all Länder
Including foreign-national residents yields a lower combined ratio everywhere
The endpoints compare nationality stocks; the small third dot is the observed total.Exact values, definitions and all 16 Länder
| Land | Under 18 | 18-29 | 30-49 | 50-64 | 65+ | Durable crossover | German 18–29 | Foreign 18–29 | Observed 18–29 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baden-Württemberg | 950.4 | 906.5 | 965.9 | 1,009.2 | 1,231.4 | age 63 | 938.8 | 809.1 | 906.5 |
| Bayern | 946.5 | 899.7 | 966.1 | 1,012.2 | 1,238.9 | age 61 | 946.1 | 759.9 | 899.7 |
| Berlin | 952.4 | 970.4 | 977.8 | 1,000.3 | 1,317.9 | age 61 | 1,029.6 | 867.3 | 970.4 |
| Brandenburg | 949.9 | 861.6 | 971.7 | 992.8 | 1,260.9 | age 62 | 909.7 | 659.4 | 861.6 |
| Bremen | 944.8 | 899.2 | 943.6 | 1,013.4 | 1,324.2 | age 60 | 973.1 | 762.2 | 899.2 |
| Hamburg | 936.6 | 998.2 | 997.4 | 1,008.3 | 1,327.9 | age 59 | 1,053.2 | 848.5 | 998.2 |
| Hessen | 953.3 | 913.4 | 986.5 | 1,015.7 | 1,237.6 | age 58 | 958.3 | 788.9 | 913.4 |
| Mecklenburg-Vorpommern | 957.1 | 913 | 951.4 | 998.8 | 1,279.1 | age 57 | 965.2 | 674.4 | 913 |
| Niedersachsen | 946.2 | 909.9 | 968 | 1,022.5 | 1,234.2 | age 44 | 944.6 | 771.4 | 909.9 |
| Nordrhein-Westfalen | 944 | 922.2 | 979.3 | 1,020.6 | 1,271.5 | age 43 | 957.3 | 804.7 | 922.2 |
| Rheinland-Pfalz | 948.3 | 904.1 | 965.4 | 1,018.1 | 1,216.9 | age 60 | 948.2 | 754.8 | 904.1 |
| Saarland | 937.6 | 901.1 | 959.8 | 1,029.5 | 1,238.8 | age 46 | 938.5 | 793.3 | 901.1 |
| Sachsen | 945.2 | 905 | 924.6 | 963.3 | 1,328.5 | age 61 | 963.7 | 675.7 | 905 |
| Sachsen-Anhalt | 926 | 856.3 | 925.9 | 991.9 | 1,336 | age 60 | 926.9 | 625.5 | 856.3 |
| Schleswig-Holstein | 949 | 909.6 | 996.6 | 1,042.4 | 1,253.6 | age 40 | 946.4 | 751.1 | 909.6 |
| Thüringen | 947.9 | 866.7 | 917.5 | 977.8 | 1,291.7 | age 60 | 928.5 | 659.2 | 866.7 |
Ratios use population counts at 31 December 2025. Pyramid bars are percentages of each geography’s total population, not percentages within sex.
06 · What follows—and what does not
The pattern is real. A one-cause story is not.
Historical internal migration aligns more closely with the 2025 young-adult ratio than the available university-location or employment-rate proxies. Foreign-national composition lowers the total ratio relative to the German-national ratio in every Land. Those are two bounded findings—not a causal chain.
Population stocks differ by cohort, place and nationality.
The displayed counts and ratios reconcile to official tables. The Sankey-like flow partitions a stock; its ribbons do not show people moving.
Long-run internal migration has the strongest rank alignment.
Across 16 Länder, Spearman ρ is 0.70 for the historical migration proxy, 0.11 for student intensity and −0.26 for the employment-rate gap.
Why one Land reached its observed ratio.
The age bands combine cohorts, the migration proxy spans all ages over 26 years, and regional variables move together. No coefficient here is a treatment effect.
Longer demographic arc · 1991–2024
Germany Aged Everywhere. Growth Started from Different Places.
Follow all 16 Länder through demographic composition, transition and economic adjustment. The pyramids here are a snapshot of the first object—not an explanation of a growth path.
Read the companion essay Political consequence · 396 KreiseRegional Retreat Reached the Ballot Box.
The companion political analysis asks whether working-age population retention—not aging by itself—helps describe the AfD geography. Its feedback loop remains explicitly unproven.
Open the political evidence07 · Methods and sources
One date. Separate stocks. Inspectable arithmetic.
Population ratios use Destatis GENESIS table 12411-0013 at 31 December 2025; its flat-file quality marker e denotes a final value. Single ages are aggregated into five broad reading groups and 19 five-year cohorts. A durable crossover is the first single age after which every older age remains above parity; it is an analytical definition, not an official indicator.
Nationality composition uses table 12411-0014 for ages 18–29. Student intensity uses institution-location counts for winter semester 2025/26. Employment uses provisional 2025 Mikrozensus estimates for ages 20–29. Internal migration sums German-national balances from 2000 through 2025 across all ages.
Population-pyramid bars show each sex-and-cohort count as a share of that geography's total population. They are not percentages within sex. All three overlaid pyramids use the same fixed scale so silhouettes remain comparable.