North Rhine-Westphalia: NRW population grows to more than 18 million

Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - The population of North Rhine-Westphalia has increased. Around 18.08 million people lived in the most populous federal state at the end of June, 0.15 million more than at the beginning of the year (plus 0.9 percent), as the state statistics office IT.NRW announced on Monday. The number of inhabitants exceeded 18 million for the first time since 2006. The largest city in NRW is Cologne with 1.08 million inhabitants, followed by Düsseldorf (0.63 million), Dortmund (0.59) and Essen (0.58).