Germany’s population has hit a record high of more than 84m people this year, driven mainly by an influx of Ukrainian refugees, the German Federal Statistical Office has reported. 

Germany recorded net immigration of 750,000 people from Ukraine in the first half of 2022, according to the office, responsible for collecting information on German society, economy and the environment. 

‘The decisive factor for the current development is the influx of refugees from Ukraine as a result of the Russian war of aggression,’ the office said, adding that this influx pushed Germany’s population growth to 1%, or about 843,000 people, in the first half of the year. By comparison, the German population grew by just 82,000 people, or 0.1%, in all of 2021.  

Germany, now the European Union’s most populous country, has seen growth on a scale comparable to this one only three times before since 1990. In 1992, refugees from the war in the former Yugoslavia helped swell the population by 700,000, and, in 2015, Germany became home for more than 1m refugees from Syria.

According to the Statistical Office, Germany’s 60% of the population growth this year has been female as more women and children fled the war in Ukraine, since men who could fight were not allowed to leave the country.