Largest Cities in Germany 2026: Population Ranking

Germany's cities at a glance

Updated October 2026

Dots sized by population · Berlin in orange

Germany has 4 cities with more than a million inhabitants and 79 with more than 100,000 (city-proper figures). The largest is Berlin with 3,426,354 people, followed by Hamburg (1,973,896) and Munich (1,505,005). The three largest cities together hold about 8.3% of the country's 83.6 million people.

The capital, Berlin, is also the largest city.

By region, the most large cities are in North Rhine-Westphalia (29), Baden-Wurttemberg (9), Bavaria (8).

Country-level figures — live population, births and deaths, growth, density and history — are on the Germany population page; provinces, terrain, rivers and society maps are in the Germany atlas.

Germany cities by population

79 cities · GeoNames · city proper

#	City	Region	Population	Share of Germany
1	BerlinCapital	State of Berlin	3,426,354	4.1%
2	Hamburg	Hamburg	1,973,896	2.4%
3	Munich	Bavaria	1,505,005	1.8%
4	Köln	North Rhine-Westphalia	1,024,621	1.2%
5	Frankfurt am Main	Hesse	650,000	0.8%
6	Düsseldorf	North Rhine-Westphalia	618,685	0.7%
7	Stuttgart	Baden-Wurttemberg	612,663	0.7%
8	Essen	North Rhine-Westphalia	593,085	0.7%
9	Dortmund	North Rhine-Westphalia	588,462	0.7%
10	Dresden	Saxony	564,904	0.7%
11	Bremen	Bremen	546,501	0.7%
12	Nuremberg	Bavaria	515,543	0.6%
13	Hannover	Lower Saxony	515,140	0.6%
14	Leipzig	Saxony	504,971	0.6%
15	Duisburg	North Rhine-Westphalia	504,358	0.6%
16	Bochum	North Rhine-Westphalia	385,729	0.5%
17	Wuppertal	North Rhine-Westphalia	360,797	0.4%
18	Bielefeld	North Rhine-Westphalia	331,906	0.4%
19	Bonn	North Rhine-Westphalia	330,579	0.4%
20	Münster	North Rhine-Westphalia	308,258	0.4%
21	Mannheim	Baden-Wurttemberg	307,960	0.4%
22	Augsburg	Bavaria	301,105	0.4%
23	Wiesbaden	Hesse	288,850	0.3%
24	Karlsruhe	Baden-Wurttemberg	283,799	0.3%
25	Gelsenkirchen	North Rhine-Westphalia	270,028	0.3%
26	Aachen	North Rhine-Westphalia	265,208	0.3%
27	Mönchengladbach	North Rhine-Westphalia	261,742	0.3%
28	Kiel	Schleswig-Holstein	252,668	0.3%
29	Chemnitz	Saxony	247,220	0.3%
30	Braunschweig	Lower Saxony	244,715	0.3%
31	Magdeburg	Saxony-Anhalt	244,329	0.3%
32	Krefeld	North Rhine-Westphalia	237,984	0.3%
33	Halle (Saale)	Saxony-Anhalt	237,865	0.3%
34	Freiburg	Baden-Wurttemberg	237,460	0.3%
35	Mainz	Rheinland-Pfalz	222,889	0.3%
36	Oberhausen	North Rhine-Westphalia	219,176	0.3%
37	Erfurt	Thuringia	218,793	0.3%
38	Lübeck	Schleswig-Holstein	212,207	0.3%
39	Hagen	North Rhine-Westphalia	198,972	0.2%
40	Rostock	Mecklenburg-Vorpommern	198,293	0.2%
41	Kassel	Hesse	197,230	0.2%
42	Potsdam	Brandenburg	184,754	0.2%
43	Saarbrücken	Saarland	182,971	0.2%
44	Hamm	North Rhine-Westphalia	178,967	0.2%
45	Mülheim	North Rhine-Westphalia	173,050	0.2%
46	Herne	North Rhine-Westphalia	172,108	0.2%
47	Darmstadt	Hesse	167,029	0.2%
48	Osnabrück	Lower Saxony	166,462	0.2%
49	Solingen	North Rhine-Westphalia	164,359	0.2%
50	Ludwigshafen am Rhein	Rheinland-Pfalz	163,196	0.2%
51	Leverkusen	North Rhine-Westphalia	162,738	0.2%
52	Oldenburg	Lower Saxony	159,218	0.2%
53	Neuss	North Rhine-Westphalia	152,457	0.2%
54	Regensburg	Bavaria	151,389	0.2%
55	Heidelberg	Baden-Wurttemberg	143,345	0.2%
56	Paderborn	North Rhine-Westphalia	142,161	0.2%
57	Würzburg	Bavaria	133,731	0.2%
58	Fürth	Bavaria	132,036	0.2%
59	Wolfsburg	Lower Saxony	123,064	0.1%
60	Recklinghausen	North Rhine-Westphalia	122,438	0.1%
61	Göttingen	Lower Saxony	122,149	0.1%
62	Heilbronn	Baden-Wurttemberg	120,733	0.1%
63	Ingolstadt	Bavaria	120,658	0.1%
64	Ulm	Baden-Wurttemberg	120,451	0.1%
65	Bottrop	North Rhine-Westphalia	119,909	0.1%
66	Pforzheim	Baden-Wurttemberg	119,313	0.1%
67	Offenbach	Hesse	119,192	0.1%
68	Remscheid	North Rhine-Westphalia	117,118	0.1%
69	Reutlingen	Baden-Wurttemberg	112,627	0.1%
70	Koblenz	Rheinland-Pfalz	107,319	0.1%
71	Siegen	North Rhine-Westphalia	107,242	0.1%
72	Bergisch Gladbach	North Rhine-Westphalia	106,184	0.1%
73	Salzgitter	Lower Saxony	104,970	0.1%
74	Jena	Thuringia	104,712	0.1%
75	Gera	Thuringia	104,659	0.1%
76	Moers	North Rhine-Westphalia	103,487	0.1%
77	Hildesheim	Lower Saxony	103,052	0.1%
78	Erlangen	Bavaria	102,675	0.1%
79	Trier	Rheinland-Pfalz	100,129	0.1%

Cities with 300,000 or more people link to their own page. The list keeps every city of 100,000+ and at least the 30 largest places of the country.

Frequently asked questions

What is the largest city in Germany?

Berlin, with about 3,426,354 inhabitants (city proper).

What is the capital of Germany?

Berlin — population 3,426,354, the largest city in the country.

How many cities in Germany have over one million people?

4: Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Köln.

Are these metropolitan-area populations?

No. They are city-proper figures (the administrative city) from GeoNames, based on the latest census or official estimate. Metropolitan areas, which include suburbs and satellite towns, are larger — often several times larger for the biggest cities.

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APA

Glostats. (2026). Largest Cities in Germany 2026: Population Ranking. Retrieved October 20, 2026, from https://glostats.com/cities/germany/

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Figures on this page may be quoted, charted or republished as long as the page is credited with a link. Terms · Download the data as CSV · Embed a live counter.

City populations are GeoNames figures (CC BY 4.0): the latest official census or estimate for the city proper — the municipality, not the wider metropolitan area — so they can differ from "metro area" numbers you see elsewhere. Country populations are live Glostats estimates from the UN World Population Prospects. Page generated 2026-10-20. More about our data.