Erfurt (dpa/th) - According to a forecast, only around 1.92 million people will live in Thuringia in 2042. This corresponds to a population decline of 8.7 percent or around 183,100 people compared to 2021, as the State Statistics Office announced on Tuesday. According to the current population projection, the main reason is still that more people are dying than children are being born. According to the authority, this cannot be compensated for by a plus in immigration and a slight increase in the number of births.
Because of the war refugees from Ukraine who came to Thuringia last year, the decline is less than in a previous forecast, it said. However, the current calculation confirms the long-term downward trend.
By 2042, statisticians expect that on average around 16,600 fewer children will be born in Bavaria than people die. At the same time, according to the calculation, 7,800 more people move to Thuringia than people leave the Free State. The proportion of the foreign population will continue to increase. At the end of 2021, around 2.1 million people lived in Thuringia.
The decline in population has hit the independent city of Suhl particularly hard, losing 26.3 percent of its inhabitants within 20 years. Only the autonomous cities of Erfurt, Weimar and Jena can count on growth. 4.8 percent more residents are forecast for Weimar by 2042, 1.1 percent for the state capital and 0.5 percent for Jena. For the majority of the districts, the statisticians expect declines in the double-digit percentage range. The loss was the strongest at 17.4 percent in the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district, and the lowest in the Weimarer Land (minus 0.8 percent).
