MECKLENBURG-VORPOMMERN - Population
Negative population growth
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern had 1 744 624 inhabitants at the end of 2002, a decrease of 10.4% compared with 1 January 1990. The percentage of people of working age (71%) was one of the highest in the country, due to the "baby-boomers" who entered the labour market from the early 1970s onwards.
The birth rate also decreased over the decade (from 12.2 births per 1 000 inhabitants in 1990 to 7.1 in 2002), reaching a low of 4.9 in 1994. Since 1991, the number of deaths has consistently been higher than the number of births, despite a slight increase in the number of births since 1995. There are now more people over the age of 64 than under the age of 15, even though the share of people aged over 64 is one of the lowest in the country.
The tide of migrants from what was then the German Democratic Republic to the Federal Republic led to a population decrease between 1950 and 1960. There followed a period in which migration was insignificant. The new wave which began in 1989, however, caused the population to fall by 14 900 compared with the 1988 level, and by a further 40 000 in 1990.
From 1990 to 2002, 507 000 people left Mecklenburg-Vorpommern to live elsewhere, the lowest number in any one year being 31 000. Immigrants numbered 388 000, the smallest annual number since 1992 being 29 000. Net emigration between 1990 and 2002 was therefore 119 000, while the excess of deaths (246 000) over births (163 000) over the period was 83 000. The above-average emigration of women in the 21-35 year age group (whose numbers have declined by one-third since 1990) has exacerbated the problem of the low birth rate.
Internal migration from the small Gemeinden to the towns has been taking place for many years. In 1989, half of all Gemeinden had fewer than 500 inhabitants. Since then, the population of those Gemeinden has declined by one-quarter.
Conversely, there has been a process of suburbanisation, as city dwellers, particularly in the major cities, have moved to the outlying Gemeinden. As a result, the population of the urban districts declined by 76 600 between 1990 and 2001, which accounts for about one-half of the overall population loss of around 20% experienced by those cities over the period.
Foreign nationals account for 1.8% of the population, one of the lowest percentages in all of Germany. Of the 30 800 foreign citizens living in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in 2002, 27 600 were from non-EU countries, including 2 600 from Russia, 2 400 from Ukraine und 1 900 from Poland.
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