In 1800, the region of Germany was not a single, unified nation, but a collection of decentralized, independent states, bound together as part of the Holy Roman Empire. This empire was dissolved, however, in 1806, during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras in Europe, and the German Confederation was established in 1815. Napoleonic reforms led to the abolition of serfdom, extension of voting rights to property-owners, and an overall increase in living standards. The population grew throughout the remainder of the century, as improvements in sanitation and medicine (namely, mandatory vaccination policies) saw child mortality rates fall in later decades. As Germany industrialized and the economy grew, so too did the argument for nationhood; calls for pan-Germanism (the unification of all German-speaking lands) grew more popular among the lower classes in the mid-1800s, especially following the revolutions of 1948-49. In contrast, industrialization and poor harvests also saw high unemployment in rural regions, which led to waves of mass migration, particularly to the U.S.. In 1886, the Austro-Prussian War united northern Germany under a new Confederation, while the remaining German states (excluding Austria and Switzerland) joined following the Franco-Prussian War in 1871; this established the German Empire, under the Prussian leadership of Emperor Wilhelm I and Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. 1871 to 1945 - Unification to the Second World War The first decades of unification saw Germany rise to become one of Europe's strongest and most advanced nations, and challenge other world powers on an international scale, establishing colonies in Africa and the Pacific. These endeavors were cut short, however, when the Austro-Hungarian heir apparent was assassinated in Sarajevo; Germany promised a "blank check" of support for Austria's retaliation, who subsequently declared war on Serbia and set the First World War in motion. Viewed as the strongest of the Central Powers, Germany mobilized over 11 million men throughout the war, and its army fought in all theaters. As the war progressed, both the military and civilian populations grew increasingly weakened due to malnutrition, as Germany's resources became stretched. By the war's end in 1918, Germany suffered over 2 million civilian and military deaths due to conflict, and several hundred thousand more during the accompanying influenza pandemic. Mass displacement and the restructuring of Europe's borders through the Treaty of Versailles saw the population drop by several million more.

Reparations and economic mismanagement also financially crippled Germany and led to bitter indignation among many Germans in the interwar period; something that was exploited by Adolf Hitler on his rise to power. Reckless printing of money caused hyperinflation in 1923, when the currency became so worthless that basic items were priced at trillions of Marks; the introduction of the Rentenmark then stabilized the economy before the Great Depression of 1929 sent it back into dramatic decline. When Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, the Nazi government disregarded the Treaty of Versailles' restrictions and Germany rose once more to become an emerging superpower. Hitler's desire for territorial expansion into eastern Europe and the creation of an ethnically-homogenous German empire then led to the invasion of Poland in 1939, which is considered the beginning of the Second World War in Europe. Again, almost every aspect of German life contributed to the war effort, and more than 13 million men were mobilized. After six years of war, and over seven million German deaths, the Axis powers were defeated and Germany was divided into four zones administered by France, the Soviet Union, the UK, and the U.S.. Mass displacement, shifting borders, and the relocation of peoples based on ethnicity also greatly affected the population during this time. 1945 to 2020 - Partition and Reunification In the late 1940s, cold war tensions led to two distinct states emerging in Germany; the Soviet-controlled east became the communist German Democratic Republic (DDR), and the three western zones merged to form the democratic Federal Republic of Germany. Additionally, Berlin was split in a similar fashion, although its location deep inside DDR territory created series of problems and opportunities for the those on either side. Life quickly changed depending on which side of the border one lived. Within a decade, rapid economic recovery saw West Germany become western Europe's strongest economy and a key international player. In the east, living standards were much lower, although unemployment was almost non-existent; internationally, East Germany was the strongest economy in the Eastern Bloc (after the USSR), though it eventually fell behind the West by the 1970s. The restriction of movement between the two states also led to labor shortages in t...

In 1938, the year before the outbreak of the Second world War, the countries with the largest populations were China, the Soviet Union, and the United States, although the United Kingdom had the largest overall population when it's colonies, dominions, and metropole are combined. Alongside France, these were the five Allied "Great Powers" that emerged victorious from the Second World War. The Axis Powers in the war were led by Germany and Japan in their respective theaters, and their smaller populations were decisive factors in their defeat. Manpower as a resource In the context of the Second World War, a country or territory's population played a vital role in its ability to wage war on such a large scale. Not only were armies able to call upon their people to fight in the war and replenish their forces, but war economies were also dependent on their workforce being able to meet the agricultural, manufacturing, and logistical demands of the war. For the Axis powers, invasions and the annexation of territories were often motivated by the fact that it granted access to valuable resources that would further their own war effort - millions of people living in occupied territories were then forced to gather these resources, or forcibly transported to work in manufacturing in other Axis territories. Similarly, colonial powers were able to use resources taken from their territories to supply their armies, however this often had devastating consequences for the regions from which food was redirected, contributing to numerous food shortages and famines across Africa, Asia, and Europe. Men from annexed or colonized territories were also used in the armies of the war's Great Powers, and in the Axis armies especially. This meant that soldiers often fought alongside their former-enemies. Aftermath The Second World War was the costliest in human history, resulting in the deaths of between 70 and 85 million people. Due to the turmoil and destruction of the war, accurate records for death tolls generally do not exist, therefore pre-war populations (in combination with other statistics), are used to estimate death tolls. The Soviet Union is believed to have lost the largest amount of people during the war, suffering approximately 24 million fatalities by 1945, followed by China at around 20 million people. The Soviet death toll is equal to approximately 14 percent of its pre-war population - the countries with the highest relative death tolls in the war are found in Eastern Europe, due to the intensity of the conflict and the systematic genocide committed in the region during the war.

It is estimated that the Second World War was responsible for the deaths of approximately 3.76 percent of the world's population between 1939 and 1945. In 2022, where the world's population reached eight billion, this would be equal to the death of around 300 million people.

The region that experienced the largest loss of life relative to its population was the South Seas Mandate - these were former-German territories given to the Empire of Japan through the Treaty of Versailles following WWI, and they make up much of the present-day countries of the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, the Northern Mariana Islands (U.S. territory), and Palau. Due to the location and strategic importance of these islands, they were used by the Japanese as launching pads for their attacks on Pearl Harbor and in the South Pacific, while they were also taken as part of the Allies' island-hopping strategy in their counteroffensive against Japan. This came at a heavy cost for the local populations, a large share of whom were Japanese settlers who had moved there in the 1920s and 1930s. Exact figures for both pre-war populations and wartime losses fluctuate by source, however civilian losses in these islands were extremely high as the Japanese defenses resorted to more extreme measures in the war's final phase.

Sources: Publications of the Federal Statistical Office, scientific publications

In 1800, the region of Germany was not a single, unified nation, but a collection of decentralized, independent states, bound together as part of the Holy Roman Empire. This empire was dissolved, however, in 1806, during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras in Europe, and the German Confederation was established in 1815. Napoleonic reforms led to the abolition of serfdom, extension of voting rights to property-owners, and an overall increase in living standards. The population grew throughout the remainder of the century, as improvements in sanitation and medicine (namely, mandatory vaccination policies) saw child mortality rates fall in later decades. As Germany industrialized and the economy grew, so too did the argument for nationhood; calls for pan-Germanism (the unification of all German-speaking lands) grew more popular among the lower classes in the mid-1800s, especially following the revolutions of 1948-49. In contrast, industrialization and poor harvests also saw high unemployment in rural regions, which led to waves of mass migration, particularly to the U.S.. In 1886, the Austro-Prussian War united northern Germany under a new Confederation, while the remaining German states (excluding Austria and Switzerland) joined following the Franco-Prussian War in 1871; this established the German Empire, under the Prussian leadership of Emperor Wilhelm I and Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. 1871 to 1945 - Unification to the Second World War The first decades of unification saw Germany rise to become one of Europe's strongest and most advanced nations, and challenge other world powers on an international scale, establishing colonies in Africa and the Pacific. These endeavors were cut short, however, when the Austro-Hungarian heir apparent was assassinated in Sarajevo; Germany promised a "blank check" of support for Austria's retaliation, who subsequently declared war on Serbia and set the First World War in motion. Viewed as the strongest of the Central Powers, Germany mobilized over 11 million men throughout the war, and its army fought in all theaters. As the war progressed, both the military and civilian populations grew increasingly weakened due to malnutrition, as Germany's resources became stretched. By the war's end in 1918, Germany suffered over 2 million civilian and military deaths due to conflict, and several hundred thousand more during the accompanying influenza pandemic. Mass displacement and the restructuring of Europe's borders through the Treaty of Versailles saw the population drop by several million more. Reparations and economic mismanagement also financially crippled Germany and led to bitter indignation among many Germans in the interwar period; something that was exploited by Adolf Hitler on his rise to power. Reckless printing of money caused hyperinflation in 1923, when the currency became so worthless that basic items were priced at trillions of Marks; the introduction of the Rentenmark then stabilized the economy before the Great Depression of 1929 sent it back into dramatic decline. When Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, the Nazi government disregarded the Treaty of Versailles' restrictions and Germany rose once more to become an emerging superpower. Hitler's desire for territorial expansion into eastern Europe and the creation of an ethnically-homogenous German empire then led to the invasion of Poland in 1939, which is considered the beginning of the Second World War in Europe. Again, almost every aspect of German life contributed to the war effort, and more than 13 million men were mobilized. After six years of war, and over seven million German deaths, the Axis powers were defeated and Germany was divided into four zones administered by France, the Soviet Union, the UK, and the U.S.. Mass displacement, shifting borders, and the relocation of peoples based on ethnicity also greatly affected the population during this time. 1945 to 2020 - Partition and Reunification In the late 1940s, cold war tensions led to two distinct states emerging in Germany; the Soviet-controlled east became the communist German Democratic Republic (DDR), and the three western zones merged to form the democratic Federal Republic of Germany. Additionally, Berlin was split in a similar fashion, although its location deep inside DDR territory created series of problems and opportunities for the those on either side. Life quickly changed depending on which side of the border one lived. Within a decade, rapid economic recovery saw West Germany become western Europe's strongest economy and a key international player. In the east, living standards were much lower, although unemployment was almost non-existent; internationally, East Germany was the strongest economy in the Eastern Bloc (after the USSR), though it eventually fell behind the West by the 1970s. The restriction of movement between the two states also led to labor shortages in t...

Abstract: The German Local Population Database (GPOP) includes historical population figures for all administrative units of Germany. The GPOP database includes total population in 1871, 1910, 1939, 1946, 1961, 1987, 1996, 2011, and 2019 for the universe of all German municipalities, counties, and states at consistent contemporary boundaries (31 December 2019). The database was hand-collected and assembled from more than 50 sources. The data reflect 150 years of regional development and disparities in Germany.

Originally interview, then recording of publicized data.

In late May 1939, just three months before the Second World War began in Europe, Germany's workforce was made up of almost 25 million men, 15 million women, and a very small number of foreign workers. The share of German men in the workforce decreased each year thereafter, as more were conscripted into the armed forces, and there were approximately 11 million fewer German male citizens in the workforce by September 1944. The number of German women fluctuated, but remained between 14 and 15 million throughout the given period, and it exceeded the number of German men in 1944. Despite the number of German men in the workforce dropping by 45 percent, the total number of workers in German was consistently around 36 million between 1940 and 1944, as this difference was offset by foreign and forced laborers. These workers were mostly drafted from annexed territories in Eastern Europe, and prisoners were transferred from concentration and POW camps to meet the labor demands in various areas of Germany.

Die vorliegende Datenkompilation zeigt die Entwicklung der Bevölkerung und Gemeinden nach Gemeindegrößenklassen in Deutschland von 1871 bis 2010. Mit der Entwicklung der Gemeindegrößenklassen ist zugleich ein Prozess angesprochen, der allgemein als ‚Verstädterung‘ bezeichnet wird. Verstädterung meint dabei die Vermehrung, Ausdehnung oder Vergrößerung von Städten nach, Zahl, Fläche oder Einwohnern. Die demografische Verstädterung kennzeichnet den (steigenden) Anteil der in Städten lebenden Bevölkerung eines Landes oder Staates. Die Verstädterung kann sowohl als demografischer Zustand (Verstädterungsgrad oder -quote als Anteil der Stadtbevölkerung an der Gesamtbevölkerung eines Landes oder Staates) als auch als demografischer Prozess (Zuwachsrate der städtischen Bevölkerung bzw. des Verstädterungsgrades) verstanden werden. Um die den Prozess der Verstädterung detaillierter erfassen zu können, wurde die Bevölkerung jeweils nach 7 (bzw. 14) Ortsgrößenklassen eingeteilt. Stadtdefinitionen können auf Einwohnerschwellenwerten oder historischen bzw. verwaltungsrechtlichen (Stadttitel) Gesichtspunkten beruhen. Am häufigsten kommen Stadtdefinitionen vor, bei denen mit Mindesteinwohnerzahlen gearbeitet wird. In Deutschland liegt der Schwellenwert bei 2.000 Einwohnern. In der Terminologie der Statistiker Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts werden folgende Gemeindegrößenklassen unterschieden (vgl. Müller, J., 1926: Deutsche Bevölkerungsstatistik. Jena: Gustav Fischer, S. 19):- Ländliche Gemeinden: Einwohnerzahl der Gemeinden mit weniger als 2,000 Einwohner;- Städtische Gemeinden: Einwohnerzahl der Gemeinden mit 2.000 und mehr Einwohner;- Landstädte: : Einwohnerzahl der Gemeinden mit 2.000 bis 5.000 Einwohner;- Kleinstädte: Einwohnerzahl der Gemeinden mit 5.000 bis 20.000 Einwohner;- Mittelstädte: Einwohnerzahl der Gemeinden mit 20.000 bis 100.000 Einwohner;- Großstädte: Einwohnerzahl der Gemeinden mit 100.000 und mehr Einwohner. Datentabellen in HISTAT:A. Deutsches ReichA.01 Die deutsche Bevölkerung nach Gemeindegrößenklassen (1871–1939)A.02 Die Gemeinden nach Gemeindegrößenklassen (1910-1939) B. Bundesrepublik DeutschlandB.01 Gemeinden nach Gemeindegrößenklassen (1950-2010)B.02a Wohnbevölkerung nach Gemeindegrößenklassen, in Tausend (1950-2010)B.02a Wohnbevölkerung nach Gemeindegrößenklassen, in Prozent (1950-2010) C. LangzeitreihenC.01 Gemeinden nach Gemeindegrößenklassen (1910-2010)C.02 Bevölkerung nach Gemeindegrößenklassen, in Tausend (1871-2010)C.03 Bevölkerung nach Gemeindegrößenklassen, in Prozent (1871-2009)

The Holocaust was the systematic extermination of Europe's Jewish population in the Second World War, during which time, up to six million Jews were murdered as part of Nazi Germany's "Final Solution to the Jewish Question". In the context of the Second World War, the term "Holocaust" is traditionally used to reference the genocide of Europe's Jews, although this coincided with the Nazi regime's genocide and ethnic cleansing of an additional eleven million people deemed "undesirable" due to their ethnicity, beliefs, disability or sexuality (among others). During the Holocaust, Poland's Jewish population suffered the largest number of fatalities, with approximately three million deaths. Additionally, at least one million Jews were murdered in the Soviet Union, while Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Yugoslavia also lost the majority of their respective pre-war Jewish populations. The Holocaust in Poland In the interwar period, Europe's Jewish population was concentrated in the east, with roughly one third living in Poland; this can be traced back to the Middle Ages, when thousands of Jews flocked to Eastern Europe to escape persecution. At the outbreak of the Second World War, it is estimated that there were 3.4 million Jews living in Poland, which was approximately ten percent of the total population. Following the German invasion of Poland, Nazi authorities then segregated Jews in ghettos across most large towns and cities, and expanded their network of concentration camps throughout the country. In the ghettos, civilians were deprived of food, and hundreds of thousands died due to disease and starvation; while prison labor was implemented under extreme conditions in concentration camps to fuel the German war effort. In Poland, six extermination camps were also operational between December 1941 and January 1945, which saw the mass extermination of approximately 2.7 million people over the next three years (including many non-Poles, imported from other regions of Europe). While concentration camps housed prisoners of all backgrounds, extermination camps were purpose-built for the elimination of the Jewish race, and over 90% of their victims were Jewish. The majority of the victims in these extermination camps were executed by poison gas, although disease, starvation and overworking were also common causes of death. In addition to the camps and ghettos, SS death squads (Einsatzgruppen) and local collaborators also committed widespread atrocities across Eastern Europe. While the majority of these atrocities took place in the Balkan, Baltic and Soviet regions, they were still prevalent in Poland (particularly during the liquidation of the ghettos), and the Einsatzgruppen alone are estimated to have killed up to 1.3 million Jews throughout the Holocaust. By early 1945, Soviet forces had largely expelled the German armies from Poland and liberated the concentration and extermination camps; by this time, Poland had lost roughly ninety percent of its pre-war Jewish population, and suffered approximately three million further civilian and military deaths. By 1991, Poland's Jewish population was estimated to be just 15 thousand people, while there were fewer than two thousand Jews recorded as living in Poland in 2018.

During the Second World War, the three Axis powers of Germany, Italy, and Finland mobilized the largest share of their male population. For the Allies, the Soviet Union mobilized the largest share of men, as well as the largest total army of any country, but it was restricted in its ability to mobilize more due to the impact this would have on its economy. Other notable statistics come from the British Empire, where a larger share of men were drafted from Dominions than from the metropole, and there is also a discrepancy between the share of the black and white populations from South Africa.

However, it should be noted that there were many external factors from the war that influenced these figures. For example, gender ratios among the adult populations of many European countries was already skewed due to previous conflicts of the 20th century (namely WWI and the Russian Revolution), whereas the share of the male population eligible to fight in many Asian and African countries was lower than more demographically developed societies, as high child mortality rates meant that the average age of the population was much lower.

Aggregate data from documents from the state bureaus of the census

The median age of Germans in 2025 was 45.5 years, meaning that half the German population was younger, half older. Following some fluctuation during the post-WWII baby boom waves, Germany's average age has been on an upwards trajectory since the 1970s, with a sharp rise in the 1990s and 2000s, although it has slowed in recent years. It is projected to peak at over 48 years in the 2040s, before plateauing around the 47 year mark for the remainder of the century. Aging in Germany This shift in the age makeup of Germany is driven by having fewer young people and more old people. While it has increased slightly in the last decade, the German fertility rate remains low. Fewer young people lead to a higher median age, as does rising life expectancy. These trends have significant economic and societal impacts, where workforces shrink and the elderly population places greater demand on healthcare systems and public finances, while families must increasingly care for elderly relatives. Regional and global trends The entire European Union, due to higher levels of development, shows an upward shift in its age distribution. While this shift is occurring globally, the level of Germany’s median age is particularly high. In many other parts of the world, particularly Subsaharan Africa, the proportion of young and old inhabitants is skewed sharply toward the young, pulling the median age lower.

Most estimates place the total number of deaths during the Second World War at around 70-85 million people. Approximately 17 million of these deaths (20-25 percent of the total) were due to crimes against humanity carried out by the Nazi regime in Europe. In comparison to the millions of deaths that took place through conflict, famine, or disease, these 17 million stand out due to the reasoning behind them, along with the systematic nature and scale in which they were carried out. Nazi ideology claimed that the Aryan race (a non-existent ethnic group referring to northern Europeans) was superior to all other ethnicities; this became the justification for German expansion and the extermination of others. During the war, millions of people deemed to be of lesser races were captured and used as slave laborers, with a large share dying of exhaustion, starvation, or individual execution. Murder campaigns were also used for systematic extermination; the most famous of these were the extermination camps, such as at Auschwitz, where roughly 80 percent of the 1.1 million victims were murdered in gas chambers upon arrival at the camp. German death squads in Eastern Europe carried out widespread mass shootings, and up to two million people were killed in this way. In Germany itself, many disabled, homosexual, and "undesirables" were also killed or euthanized as part of a wider eugenics program, which aimed to "purify" German society.

The Holocaust Of all races, the Nazi's viewed Jews as being the most inferior. Conspiracy theories involving Jews go back for centuries in Europe, and they have been repeatedly marginalized throughout history. German fascists used the Jews as scapegoats for the economic struggles during the interwar period. Following Hitler's ascendency to the Chancellorship in 1933, the German authorities began constructing concentration camps for political opponents and so-called undesirables, but the share of Jews being transported to these camps gradually increased in the following years, particularly after Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass) in 1938. In 1939, Germany then invaded Poland, home to Europe's largest Jewish population. German authorities segregated the Jewish population into ghettos, and constructed thousands more concentration and detention camps across Eastern Europe, to which millions of Jews were transported from other territories. By the end of the war, over two thirds of Europe's Jewish population had been killed, and this share is higher still when one excludes the neutral or non-annexed territories.

Lebensraum Another key aspect of Nazi ideology was that of the Lebensraum (living space). Both the populations of the Soviet Union and United States were heavily concentrated in one side of the country, with vast territories extending to the east and west, respectively. Germany was much smaller and more densely populated, therefore Hitler aspired to extend Germany's territory to the east and create new "living space" for Germany's population and industry to grow. While Hitler may have envied the U.S. in this regard, the USSR was seen as undeserving; Slavs were the largest major group in the east and the Nazis viewed them as inferior, which was again used to justify the annexation of their land and subjugation of their people. As the Germans took Slavic lands in Poland, the USSR, and Yugoslavia, ethnic cleansings (often with the help of local conspirators) became commonplace in the annexed territories. It is also believed that the majority of Soviet prisoners of war (PoWs) died through starvation and disease, and they were not given the same treatment as PoWs on the western front. The Soviet Union lost as many as 27 million people during the war, and 10 million of these were due to Nazi genocide. It is estimated that Poland lost up to six million people, and almost all of these were through genocide.

Throughout the 19th century, what we know today as Poland was not a united, independent country; apart from a brief period during the Napoleonic Wars, Polish land was split between the Austro-Hungarian, Prussian (later German) and Russian empires. During the 1800s, the population of Poland grew steadily, from approximately nine million people in 1800 to almost 25 million in 1900; throughout this time, the Polish people and their culture were oppressed by their respective rulers, and cultural suppression intensified following a number of uprisings in the various territories. Following the outbreak of the First World War, it is estimated that almost 3.4 million men from Poland served in the Austro-Hungarian, German and Russian armies, with a further 300,000 drafted for forced labor by the German authorities. Several hundred thousand were forcibly resettled in the region during the course of the war, as Poland was one of the most active areas of the conflict. For these reasons, among others, it is difficult to assess the extent of Poland's military and civilian fatalities during the war, with most reliable estimates somewhere between 640,000 and 1.1 million deaths. In the context of present-day Poland, it is estimated that the population fell by two million people in the 1910s, although some of this was also due to the Spanish Flu pandemic that followed in the wake of the war.

Poland 1918-1945

After more than a century of foreign rule, an independent Polish state was established by the Allied Powers in 1918, although it's borders were considerably different to today's, and were extended by a number of additional conflicts. The most significant of these border conflicts was the Polish-Soviet War in 1919-1920, which saw well over 100,000 deaths, and victory helped Poland to emerge as the Soviet Union's largest political and military rival in Eastern Europe during the inter-war period. Economically, Poland struggled to compete with Europe's other powers during this time, due to its lack of industrialization and infrastructure, and the global Great Depression of the 1930s exacerbated this further. Political corruption and instability was also rife in these two decades, and Poland's leadership failed to prepare the nation for the Second World War. Poland had prioritized its eastern defenses, and some had assumed that Germany's Nazi regime would see Poland as an ally due to their shared rivalry with the Soviet Union, but this was not the case. Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, in the first act of the War, and the Soviet Union launched a counter invasion on September 17; Germany and the Soviet Union had secretly agreed to do this with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in August, and had succeeded in taking the country by September's end. When Germany launched its invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 it took complete control of Poland, which continued to be the staging ground for much of the fighting between these nations. It has proven difficult to calculate the total number of Polish fatalities during the war, for a variety of reasons, however most historians have come to believe that the figure is around six million fatalities, which equated to almost one fifth of the entire pre-war population; the total population dropped by four million throughout the 1940s. The majority of these deaths took place during the Holocaust, which saw the Nazi regime commit an ethnic genocide of up to three million Polish Jews, and as many as 2.8 million non-Jewish Poles; these figures do not include the large number of victims from other countries who died after being forcefully relocated to concentration camps in Poland.

Post-war Poland

The immediate aftermath of the war was also extremely unorganized and chaotic, as millions were forcefully relocated from or to the region, in an attempt to create an ethnically homogenized state, and thousands were executed during this process. A communist government was quickly established by the Soviet Union, and socialist social and economic policies were gradually implemented over the next decade, as well as the rebuilding, modernization and education of the country. In the next few decades, particularly in the 1980s, the Catholic Church, student groups and trade unions (as part of the Solidarity movement) gradually began to challenge the government, weakening the communist party's control over the nation (although it did impose martial law and imprison political opponent throughout the early-1980s). Increasing civil unrest and the weakening of Soviet influence saw communism in Poland come to an end in the elections of 1989. Throughout the 1990s, Poland's population growth stagnated at around 38.5 million people, before gradually decreasing since the turn of the millennium, to 37.8 million people in 2020. This decline was mostly due to a negative migration rate, as Polish workers could now travel more freely to Western Europea...

Bevölkerungsdaten auf Bundeslandebene auf der Grundlage derVolkszählung von 1961. Themen: Fläche in qkm; Wohnbevölkerung zu den Zeitpunkten 1939,1950 und 1961; Familienstand und Alterskategorien derWohnbevölkerung; Religionszugehörigkeit; Anzahlder Ein-Personen-Haushalte und Mehr-Personen-Haushalte; Personenin Anstalten; Einkommensquellen; Zuzüge und Fortzüge;Angaben zur Erwerbstätigkeit; Stellung im Beruf; Berufspendler;Anzahl der landwirtschaftlichen Betriebe; landwirtschaftlichgenutzte Flächen; Getreideanbauflächen und Erntemengen;Versorgung mit Krankenhäusern. Population data at the state level on the basis of the 1961 census. Topics: Surface area in square kilometers; population as of 1939, 1950and 1961; marital status and age categories of the population;religious affiliation; number of one-person and multiple-personhouseholds; people in institutions; sources of income; influx andoutflux; information on employment; status in profession; commuters;number of agricultural companies; surface areas used for farming; areasused to grow grain and harvest size; availability of hospitals. Aggregatdaten aus den Unterlagen der Statistischen Landesämter Aggregate data from documents from the state bureaus of the census Regionaldaten auf der Ebene der Bundesländer Regional data at the state level Auswahlverfahren Kommentar:

In May 1941, less than two years after the German invasion of Poland, the total number of forced laborers in the German economy stood at approximately three million people. Around half of these worked in an agricultural capacity, and a third worked in industry. Over the next three years, the number increased to 7.1 million forced laborers, and the industrial sector grew to be the largest user of forced labor. Forced laborers Due to the high number of men mobilized, and a reluctance to have women to enter the workforce, the Nazi regime heavily encouraged the voluntary migration of workers from annexed territories in the early years of the war, in order to meet the labor demand of the Reich. There was a small influx of voluntary workers, but it quickly became evident that working conditions were much harsher than expected (especially for Poles), and the stream of workers dried up. In April 1940, authorities in German-annexed Poland then ordered that all available workers born between 1915 and 1925 were required to move to Germany. The largest source of forced labor, however, was from concentration camps; it was mostly Jews and Slavs, as well as other ethnic minorities, political prisoners, criminals, and prisoners of war. Between 1939 and 1944, the number of German laborers also grew substantially; the Nazi regime implemented stricter laws and sentences that punished people for any activities perceived to be critical of or in contrast to Nazi ideology (such as listening to foreign or underground radio stations), and 16 year olds were also sentenced as adults. However, Germans made up a minority of forced laborers in Germany, and this fell to just five to 10 percent of forced laborers by the war's end. Extermination through work Most forced laborers were contributing directly to the German war effort, producing food, armaments, and materiel for the front lines. Because of this, their places of work became targets for Allied bombing campaigns, which had a disproportionate effect on Germany's forced labor population. Forced laborers were then used in the active repair and rebuilding of these targeted areas, which exposed them to further raids, undetonated bombs, and chemical hazards. In later years, the share of Gypsies, Jews, and Slavs working in Germany increased further, and the living conditions for these prisoners worsened. As the Reich's resources became stretched, food and provisions for prisoners were rationed, healthcare became non-existent, and work quotas increased; it was only in mid-1944 that the authorities realized how detrimental this was to output and rations were increased. In the winter of 1944-45, as the Soviets pushed west into Germany, many of the larger concentration camps in the east were evacuated and the prisoners were sent on "death marches" to reinforce the workforce in Germany. Some estimates suggest that up to 700,000 prisoners were forced on these death marches (including 56,000 from Auschwitz in mid-January), and between 200,000 and 350,000 were killed. Despite its negative impact on production for the war effort, the extermination of ethnic minorities and so-called "undesirables" by exhaustion was still seen as an overall favorable outcome.

By mid-1941, Axis forces had already taken control of most of mainland Europe, as well as much of Northern Africa and parts of the Middle East*. At the outbreak of Operation Barbarossa, the major European countries not under Axis control were the officially-neutral states of Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Turkey, while the Soviet Union and United Kingdom were actively at war with the Axis Powers. By mid-1941, Germany and its allies controlled an area of approximately 3.28 million square kilometers in Europe; by comparison, modern Germany covers an area of approximately 357 thousand square kilometers. Axis control of Europe From September 1938, when Germany annexed the Czech Sudetenland, until June 1941, when Germany launched its invasion of the Soviet Union, the Axis Powers spent much of their time and resources consolidating power across Europe. Countries such as Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Finland aligned themselves with Germany, as did Italy, who became one of the chief aggressors around the Mediterranean and in Africa. Germany and the Soviet Union both invaded and partitioned Poland in September 1939, through the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of non-aggression to one-another. Germany then took Denmark and most of Norway in April 1940, before pushing into Benelux and France in May. Italy also annexed Albania in April, which was used as a launching point for its failed invasion of Greece later in the year. As Italy had failed to secure the Balkans, a joint Axis offensive then pushed into Yugoslavia and Greece in April 1941, ultimately overwhelming any resistance. However, German intervention in the south then delayed the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union by over a month; Hitler later claimed that this was the reason for Germany's failure to take Moscow before the winter months, although many historians disagree. Launch of Operation Barbarossa Germany broke their pact of non-aggression with the Soviet Union with a surprise invasion, known as Operation Barbarossa, on June 22, 1941. While Axis forces had already extended control over most of Europe by this point, Operation Barbarossa became the largest military invasion or operation in human history. When compared with German capacities in its pre-1938 borders, within a few months of the invasion, the area of land controlled by Germany had grown by a factor of six, the population by a factor of four, and its access to natural resources and energy had also grown several times larger. These increased capacities were essential in allowing Germany to continue its expansion and aggression for the years to come, before the Soviet Union and the Western Allies eventually defeated the Axis forces four years later.

Europe's Jewish population in 1939 was around 9.5 million people, and it is estimated that six million of these were ultimately killed by 1945. The persecution of German Jews escalated during the interwar period, particularly after Hitler's ascent to power in 1933, and again after Kristallnacht in 1938. However, the scale of this increased drastically following the German invasions of Poland in 1939 and the USSR in 1941, when Germany annexed regions with some of the largest Jewish populations in Europe. Extermination Camps As part of the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question", the Nazi occupiers established six extermination camps in present-day Poland; these were Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek***, Sobibor, and Treblinka. Prisoners, mostly Jews, were transported from all over Europe to these camps. Upon arrival, the majority of victims were sent directly to purpose-built chambers or vans, where they were murdered with carbon monoxide or Zyklon B gas. A relatively small number of prisoners were also forced to dispose of the victims' bodies, which often included their own family members, friends, or persons known to them. Most of the deceased were incinerated, and many of the camp records were destroyed; this means that precise figures for the number of deaths in extermination camps will never be known. It has been estimated that at least 2.7 million Jews were murdered in these six camps; over two thirds of these were killed at Auschwitz or Treblinka. Einsatzgruppen After extermination camps, the most common method of murder was through mass shootings. The majority of these shootings were not carried out by regular soldiers, but specialized task forces known as "Einsatzgruppen". Each group was just a few hundred men each, but they were responsible for some of the largest individual acts of genocide in the war. The largest of these took place at Babi Yar, near Kyiv in 1941, where almost 35,000 victims were beaten, humiliated, and then shot over a two day period. The Einsatzgruppen were most active in the annexed Soviet territories (although additional regiments were active in Poland and the Balkans), and their ranks were often bolstered by local volunteers. It has been estimated that Einsatzgruppen were responsible for the genocide of more than two million people in fewer than six years.

On November 10, 1938, just two days after the Kristallnacht pogroms, the German government introduced the Judenvermögensabgabe; the Jewish capital levy. Jews with more than 5,000 Reichsmarks (RM) in assets were required to pay a 20 percent tax on all assets in order to meet a collective target of one billion RM. Despite inflated claims of Jewish wealth, the events of the preceding five years had financially crippled many of Germany's Jewish population, and it quickly became clear that the target sum would not be met, therefore the tax was increased to 25 percent in 1939. Jewish property This levy was introduced by Herman Göring, as a punishment for Jews and their so-called "hostile attitude" towards the German people. In reality, funds from the levy were to be used to repair the businesses damaged in the pogroms (the cost of which was estimated to be 225 million RM), which were then seized by the government and sold on to non-Jewish buyers. Many of these properties were confiscated through two additional decrees in 1938, which also saw authorities force Jewish businesses to sell selected assets at severely reduced prices. Deportation A clause of the Nuremberg Laws of 1936 stripped overseas German Jews of their citizenship and property; this rule was then applied to the thousands of German Jews who were deported to concentration and extermination camps in Eastern Europe after 1941. The remaining Jewish assets were seized by the Nazi regime and put towards the war effort, which ultimately included the systematic murder of many German Jews.