The German President, Joachim Gauck, reviewing a guard of honour

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the population of Germany increased to nearly 83 million at the end of 2016 the highest in the country’s history due to influx of refugees, the Federal Statistics Office Destatis said on Friday.

The population stood at 82.8 million at the end of last year, the highest number of people since 2002, when Destatis recorded a population of 82.5 million.

“If it had not been for the arrival of some 750,000 people in 2016, many of them refugees, Germany’s population would have declined that year, according to Destatis.

Germany’s fertility rate is far below the 2.1 children per woman needed to keep the population stable.

In 2016, there was a deficit of between 150,000 and 190,000 births, the Statistics Office said.

That figure stood at 188,000 in 2015.

Also on Friday, the Finance Ministry said in its annual report that the German government spent 23.2 billion dollars on managing the refugee crisis in 2016.

(dpa/NAN)