Religion: 47% Protestant, 7% Roman Catholic, 46% unaffiliated or other; less than 5% of Protestants and about 25% of Roman Catholics active participants
Language: German
Literacy: 99%
Labor force: 8,960,000; 37.5% industry, 21.1% services, 10.8% agriculture and forestry, 10.3% commerce, 7.4% transport and communications, 6.6% construction, 3.1% handicrafts, 3.2% other (1987)
Organized labor: 87.7% of labor force
- Government
Long-form name: German Democratic Republic; abbreviated GDR
Type: Communist state
Capital: East Berlin (not officially recognized by France, UK, and US, which together with the USSR have special rights and responsibilities in Berlin)
Administrative divisions: 14 districts (bezirke, singular—bezirk);
Cottbus, Dresden, Erfurt, Frankfurt, Gera, Halle, Karl-Marx-Stadt, Leipzig,
Magdeburg, Neubrandenburg, Potsdam, Rostock, Schwerin, Suhl
Independence: self-government proclaimed 7 October 1949, with permission of the Soviet authorities