German People and Society

According to the CIA World Factbook, German society has taken great leaps to be where they currently are today having faced the trauma of post-war conditions and financial obligations. To start off, the ethnic group composition of Germany is comprised of 91.5% German, 2.4% Turkish, and 6.1% of other which includes of mostly Greek, Italian, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, and Spanish. The native language is German which goes without saying, but the religious views are 34% protestant, 34% Roman Catholic, 3.7% Muslim, and 28.3% either unaffiliated or have other beliefs. This tells us that at least 68% of German society is Christian. Germany has the 16th largest population in the world at an astounding 81,305,856 people as of July 2012. However, what's surprising is that the population growth is actually declining at a 0.2% rate and ranks 208th in the world. A reason for this is that the birth rate is lower than the death rate. Germany ranks 37th in the world for highest death rate which is very surprising. Although, it is because there are more elderly people than there are young which in turn means the society is dying faster due to old age. In addition, the migration rate is very low at .007% which is good for Germany since no one really wants to leave considering they have a flourishing economy now with great health care. Concerning health matters, 67,000 are infected with HIV/AIDS ranking Germany as 50th most prevalent in the world. Obesity has also hit the population at 12.9% which isn't nearly as bad as the United States, but is likely to increase in the coming years. Germany funds 4.5% of its GDP towards its education system and it certainly pays off because 99% of the population over the age 15 can both read and write. Not many countries can brag about a stat like that.

Germany has prevailed despite its huge economic depression and inferior diplomatic status during the majority of the 20th century, but these societal statistics show that they are still a mini-superpower, economically stable, healthy, and prosperous nation. The Germans have shown persistence through the rebuild of their social structure after battling times of Nazism and genocide. It's sad Germans hold that stigma, but they know they are pursuing whats best for themselves and the world with their proactive attitude and actions in the United Nations to promote peace building and human rights which will benefit them in future diplomatic standings and global trade.