Berlin’s population continued to grow in 2025 and, according to the population register, stood at 3,913,644 people with their main residence in the federal capital as of 31 December 2025. This is according to a press release issued by the Berlin-Brandenburg Statistics Office on 17 February 2026. Compared to the previous year, this represented an increase of 16,500 people or 0.4 per cent compared to the end of 2024. Statisticians concluded that the growth trend continued at a moderate pace.
In their comments on the latest population data, they point out that Berlin’s growth depends heavily on immigration from abroad, which declined significantly for the first time in 2025. A total of 4,541 people from abroad registered as new residents in Berlin, compared to around 25,500 in the previous year. The share of foreign nationals remained stable at 24.9%. As in 2024, the number of people with German passports continued to rise, which was due to a political decision to speed up naturalisation procedures and was also reflected in the migration background statistics. The proportion of residents with a migration background, which includes foreigners and Germans with a migration background, increased by around 53,000 to 42.3 per cent (2024: 41.1 per cent). Of these, around 49,000 were Germans with a migration background.
Ten of Berlin’s twelve districts recorded population growth. Treptow-Köpenick saw the most new registrations, with 5,450 people (+1.8 per cent). Only Reinickendorf and Steglitz-Zehlendorf saw their populations decline, by 0.9 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively. Looking at the old districts before the 2001 territorial reform, there was an increasing growth gap between the east and west of Berlin. At 0.9 per cent, population growth in the east was recently significantly higher than in the west, at 0.1 per cent. The old districts in the east gained both foreign nationals (+2.2 per cent) and people with German passports (+0.5 per cent), while the western part of the city recorded a decline of 0.5 per cent in foreign nationals. Here, only the number of Germans (+0.3 per cent) increased, partly as a result of naturalisations.
Due to regional characteristics such as the accommodation of refugees or newly built housing estates, there were considerable differences in population development between some planning areas (PLR). For example, the TXL planning area in Tegel lost the largest proportion of its population with a decline of 52.2 per cent; the proportion of foreign citizens here even fell by 66.4 per cent. In contrast, there were high population gains in the PLR Landschaftspark Adlershof (+27.2 per cent) and Oberspree (+9.4 per cent) in Treptow-Köpenick, as well as in the PLR Heidestraße (+7.8 per cent) at the main railway station.
‘A look at population trends in recent years shows that growth is the norm in Berlin. That’s why it’s particularly disastrous for the Berlin housing market when the increase in new housing lags significantly behind the growth in demand year after year,’ says Jacopo Mingazzini, CEO of The Grounds. ‘The latest population figures are a signal to Berlin’s politicians to finally ensure more new housing is built, instead of constantly rethinking how to deal with the scarce commodity of ‘housing’ in the most restrictive way possible.’
