Einwohner

Einwohner is a German noun that denotes a person who lives in a specific place, such as a city, town, or municipality. The term emphasizes residents as individuals who inhabit a geographic area, rather than the broader concept of a population. In official statistics and administrative language, the plural form is commonly used, for example in die Einwohnerzahl von Berlin.

Der Einwohner is grammatically masculine; the feminine form is Einwohnerin, and the plural is die Einwohner. In inclusive writing, it is common to pair forms as Einwohnerinnen und Einwohner, or to use neutral formulations in some contexts. In everyday language, Bewohner is sometimes used for people living in a building or a smaller community, but it has a somewhat different nuance than Einwohner.

Etymology traces Einwohner back to einwohnen, meaning to reside in a place, with the agent suffix -er. The term is widely used across German-speaking regions, including Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, to refer to people who live in a defined territorial unit.

In demography and planning, the term appears in expressions like Einwohnerzahl (the number of residents) and is contrasted with Bevölkerung (the population as a group). It is also distinguished from Bürger, which emphasizes legal status as citizens. The concept of Einwohner is central to local governance, electoral districting, and public service provision, where accurate counts of residents inform policy and budgeting.