Name: Federal Republic of Germany

 Capital: Berlin

Government

• Head of State: Federal President Horst Köhler
• Head of Government: Chancellor Angela Merkel
• Governing parties: Christian Democratic Party/ Christian Social Union, Social Democratic Party
• Opposition: Alliance'90/ The Greens, Free Democratic Party, Party of Democratic Socialism

Population

Population: 82,4 million (2007)

Ethnic groups: About 8.8% of the population are of foreign origin.

The largest groups are from:

• Turkey (2.4%)
• other (Serbo-Croatian, Italian, Russian) (6.1%)

Religion: Protestant (34%), Roman Catholic (34%), Muslim (3.7%), unaffiliated or other (28.3%)

Language: German; English is widely spoken throughout the population

Geography

Area: 137,926 sq. miles (357,092 sq.km)

Neighbors:
Denmark to the North;
Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France to the West;
Switzerland and Austria to the South;
Czech Republic and Poland to the East.

States And Population (year 2006, in mill.)
Baden-Wuerttemberg: 10.74	Hesse: 6.08	Saxony: 4.25
Bavaria: 12.49	Lower Saxony: 7.98	Saxony-Anhalt: 2.44
Berlin: 3.40	Mecklenburg-West Pomerania: 1.69	Schleswig-Holstein: 2.83
Brandenburg: 2.55	North Rhine-Westphalia: 18.03	Thuringia: 2.31
Bremen: 0.66	Rhineland-Palatinate: 4.05
Hamburg: 1.75	Saarland: 1.04

Major Cities And Population (2006)
Berlin: 3,388,477	Stuttgart: 591,114	Hannover: 507,524
Hamburg:1,754,317	Essen: 589,499	Leipzig: 507,095
Munich: 1,338,955	Dortmund: 585,000	Dresden: 506,337
Cologne: 1,024,346	Düsseldorf: 577,505	Nürnberg: 502,324
Frankfurt: 662,359	Bremen: 547,765	Duisburg: 501,564