Germany's population declines for first time since 2010: Destatis

BERLIN, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- Germany's population declined by 0.05 percent to 83.1 million people in the first half of this year, marking the first decrease since 2010, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said on Tuesday.

Since 2011, Germany's population has been growing steadily. The increase was the strongest in the second half of 2015 in the wake of the European refugee crisis with 717,000 people or 0.9 percent due to high immigration levels, according to Destatis.