Environment:
current issues: emissions from coal-burning utilities and industries
and lead emissions from vehicle exhausts (the result of continued
use of leaded fuels) contribute to air pollution; acid rain,
resulting from sulfur dioxide emissions, is damaging forests; heavy
pollution in the Baltic Sea from raw sewage and industrial effluents
from rivers in eastern Germany
natural hazards: NA
international agreements: party to - Air Pollution, Air
Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Sulphur 85, Air
Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Antarctic-Environmental
Protocol, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Endangered
Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the
Sea, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Wetlands; signed, but not ratified -
Air Pollution-Sulphur 94, Desertification, Tropical Timber 94
Geographic note: strategic location on North European Plain and
along the entrance to the Baltic Sea
People ———
Population: 83,536,115 (July 1996 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 16.15% (male 6,928,750; female 6,563,026)
15-64 years: 68.52% (male 29,339,780; female 27,902,549)
65 years and over: 15.33% (male 4,658,014; female 8,143,996) (July
1996 est.)
Population growth rate: 0.67% (1996 est.)
Birth rate: 9.66 births/1,000 population (1996 est.)
Death rate: 12.21 deaths/1,000 population (1996 est.)
Net migration rate: 8.25 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1996 est.)
Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.57 male(s)/female
all ages: 0.96 male(s)/female (1996 est.)