Just in time for the start of the winter semester 2025, this edition of "Aachen in Figures" focuses on students. The city of Aachen is strongly influenced by its student population. This is also reflected in the population statistics. The latest official figures from the Federal Statistical Office from the winter semester 2022 put the total number of students in the Aachen city region (including Jülich) at 60,315.

A significant proportion of these students live in the city. According to the 2022 census figures, the proportion of people aged between 20 and 29 in the total population of the city of Aachen was 23%. In this category, Aachen is the leader among the independent cities in NRW. This issue explains how far-reaching the influence of students is on various (population) statistics.

Population
Aachen is not only generally known as a student city, but also for the unequal gender ratio of students due to the still male-dominated technical subjects. This ratio is also reflected in the population statistics. In the results of the 2022 nationwide census, only the cities of Giessen, Marburg, Tübingen and Heidelberg had a larger proportion of people aged between 20 and 29. In terms of the proportion of men in this age group in the total population, Aachen is the nationwide leader. 13.8 percent of the population are men between the ages of 20 and 29. This corresponds to a total number of 36,095. Only Neubiberg, home to the Bundeswehr University in Munich, has a similarly high proportion at 13.7 percent. Here, however, the total number of men in this age group is only 1,970.

Graphic: Top 10 cities gender, source: Census 2022

Migration movements
Students also have a clearly measurable influence on immigration and emigration in Aachen. In the years 2014 to 2024, the average number of people aged between 20 and 29 moving in was 9,990 and the average number of people moving out was 9,518. Although this age group only makes up 23% of the total population according to the census, the rest of the population of the city of Aachen hardly shows any higher figures. An average of 10,710 inflows and 10,063 outflows were registered here. The migration balance (inflows - outflows) shows a similar picture. The average here is 472 in the 20 to 29 age group and 647 for all other age groups. The annual figures are shown in the graph below. This shows that net migration has fallen for both groups since 2014. In 2020 and 2024, net migration was negative, otherwise it was always positive.

Graphic: Migration movement, source: population register

Students in Aachen
Nationwide student numbers are available in the regional database of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). The most recent figures are from the winter semester 2022. For Aachen, the figures for the Aachen city region including students at the Jülich research location are available. Since 2015, the total number of students in Aachen has risen from 54,589 to 60,315. Engineering students make up the largest proportion. In the period under review, this proportion averaged 63.23 percent. Law, economics and social sciences have the second largest share with an average of 13.29%.

Graphic: Departments, source: Destatis

Aachen student numbers in a national comparison
According to Destatis, the total number of students in the Aachen city region, including the Jülich research location, was 60,315 in the winter semester of 2022, putting the region in 9th place in a national comparison. Looking only at engineering sciences, only Berlin has a higher number of students. This clearly shows how important engineering students are for Aachen as a study location.

Graphic: University cities, source: Destatis

Overall, it can be said that Aachen stands out even in the group of student cities. Aachen is among the leaders in both population statistics and student statistics, although many of the cities compared here have significantly more inhabitants.

All available "Aachen in Figures" articles can be found at www.aachen.de/statistik, under the heading "Aachen in Figures".