Germany has a population of around 84 million, making it the most populous country in the European Union. The population is spread across the country, with the densest concentrations in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region (Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund), the Munich area, Berlin, and the Rhine-Main region around Frankfurt.
Germans have a reputation for directness, punctuality, and taking rules seriously. This is broadly fair — in shops, on trains, and in queues, Germans tend to mean what they say and expect others to do the same. But this gets exaggerated. Regional differences are real: Bavarians are typically more relaxed and chatty than north Germans; Berliners have their own particular brand of blunt warmth; Rhinelanders are known for their joviality.
Germany has significant immigrant communities. Around 13 million people living in Germany have migrant backgrounds, with Turkish, Polish, Syrian, and Russian among the largest groups. Turkish immigration, which began with the Gastarbeiter (guest worker) programs of the 1960s, has shaped German urban culture significantly — the döner kebab was essentially invented in Berlin, and Turkish bakeries and tea houses are a fixture of many cities.
The east-west divide, a legacy of the 1949–1990 division into West Germany (FRG) and East Germany (GDR), is diminishing but still occasionally felt. Economic differences have narrowed, but some cultural and political distinctions remain.
Language: German. Regional dialects are strong — Bavarian, Swabian, Plattdeutsch in the north, Kölsch in Cologne — but standard High German (Hochdeutsch) is spoken everywhere and what you'll learn from a phrasebook.
Religion: Around 25% Catholic, 22% Protestant, with a large secular majority. Islam is the largest non-Christian religion, practiced by around 5% of the population.