Map of Nordrhein-Westfalen

History

The state of North Rhine-Westphalia was established by the British military administration's "Operation Marriage" on 23 August 1946 by merging the province of Westphalia and the northern parts of the Rhine Province, both being political divisions of the former state of Prussia within the German Reich. On 21 January 1947, the former state of Lippe was merged with North Rhine-Westphalia. The constitution of North Rhine-Westphalia was then ratified through a referendum.

The first written account of the area was by its conqueror, Julius Caesar, the territories west of the Rhine were occupied by the Eburones and east of the Rhine he reported the Ubii (across from Cologne) and the Sugambri to their north.

Geography

North Rhine-Westphalia encompasses the plains of the Lower Rhine region and parts of the Central Uplands (die Mittelgebirge) up to the gorge of Porta Westfalica. The state covers an area of 34,083 km2 (13,160 sq mi) and shares borders with Belgium (Wallonia) in the southwest and the Netherlands (Limburg, Gelderland and Overijssel) in the west and northwest. It has borders with the German states of Lower Saxony to the north and northeast, Rhineland-Palatinate to the south and Hesse to the southeast.

Approximately half of the state is located in the relative low-lying terrain of the Westphalian Lowland and the Rhineland, both extending broadly into the North German Plain.

Economy

NRW has consistently been Germany's economic powerhouse, with the largest economy among the German states by GDP figures. In 2024, NRW was the first state to exceed a nominal GDP of US$1.0 trillion.

In the post-World War II recovery, the Ruhr region was one of the most important industrial regions in Western Europe, and contributed to the German Wirtschaftswunder. In 1958, a decade long Kohlekrise began: the amount of hard coal mined exceeded demand. One reason was the low oil price.

Around 1967, also a steel crisis began. Until then, NRW had been known as Land von Kohle und Stahl (Land of Coal and Steel).

Producing sectors, particularly in mechanical engineering and metal and iron working industry, experienced substantial growth.

Demographics

North Rhine-Westphalia has a population of approximately 18.1 million inhabitants and is centred around the polycentric Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, which includes the industrial Ruhr region with the largest city of Dortmund and the Rhenish cities of Bonn, Cologne and Düsseldorf. 30 of the 80 largest cities in Germany are located within North Rhine-Westphalia. The state's capital is Düsseldorf; the state's largest city is Cologne. In 2022, there were 164,496 births and 234,176 deaths.

The following table shows the population of the state since 1930. The values until 1960 are the average of the yearly population, from 1965 the population at year end is used.