Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) - Almost all urban and rural districts in Baden-Württemberg have been growing for 50 years - only in Stuttgart and Mannheim has the population declined since the district reform in 1973. As the Baden-Württemberg State Statistical Office also announced on Thursday, cities have become increasingly less attractive in recent years. This is mainly due to the housing shortage. A total of 11.1 million people currently live in Baden-Württemberg. That is around 22 percent more than in 1973.

In the past 50 years, population growth has been particularly high in two districts in Baden-Württemberg: In the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, almost 51 percent more people live in 2022 than in 1973. This is followed by the district of Heilbronn with a population increase of around 50 percent. In the urban districts of Stuttgart and Mannheim, on the other hand, fewer people live today than 50 years ago: the bottom line is that Stuttgart has a minus of 0.7 percent - however, the state capital has been recording population growth again for years. In Mannheim, the population has declined by 5.3 percent since 1973. In 1973, the so-called District Reform Act came into force, reducing the number of urban and rural districts from 72 to 44.

According to the State Statistical Office, population development has varied greatly in recent decades. Growth phases in the cities alternated with growth phases in the rural regions. While people were drawn to the cities up to the end of the 1950s, they preferred the countryside from the 1970s until the turn of the millennium. Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe lost inhabitants during this time. The top 22 in terms of population growth, on the other hand, were all counties. Here, too, Heilbronn and the Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald took the top spots.

After the turn of the millennium, however, the trend reversed: more and more people lived in the cities again. Above all, Heidelberg, Kralsruhe and Freiburg im Breisgau recorded above-average growth. Rural districts, on the other hand, lost residents. According to the State Statistical Office, this "trend towards the city" has practically come to a standstill in recent years. Above all, the housing shortage ensures that many families leave the cities and growth there is weakened. Stuttgart, Heidelberg and Karlsruhe have even lost residents in recent years.