Editing Gotha (section)

== Geography and demographics ==

=== Topography ===
[[File:Gotha Blick vom Bürgerturm.jpg|thumb|View from Krahnberg mountain over the city]]
Gotha is situated in a flat landscape within the fertile [[Thuringian Basin]]. A tectonic dislocation traverses the city from north-west to south-east. Thereby, it forms three prominent hills: the 431 m high ''Krahnberg'' with the ''Ratsholz'' forest in the north-west, the hill of Friedenstein Castle in the city centre and the 409 m high ''Seeberg'' in the south-east. The city itself lies at an elevation of 300 m and the municipal territory is nearly free of forest (with the two named mountains as exceptions) and is in intensive agricultural use. As one out of only very few ancient cities in Germany, Gotha is not situated on a river, so that water supply was already a problem in the Middle Ages. For that reason, the ''Leinakanal'' was built in the 14th century over a distance of more than 25 kilometres, which was at the time an enormous task. The Leinakanal brings water from [[Hörsel]] and [[Apfelstädt (river)|Apfelstädt]] river to Gotha, overcoming the watershed between [[Elbe]] (Apfelstädt) and [[Weser]] (Gotha). The drain of Leinakanal is the ''Flutgraben'', a tributary of [[Nesse (Hörsel)|Nesse]]. The [[Thuringian Forest]] is located {{convert|15|km|0|abbr=on}} south-west of Gotha.

=== Administrative division ===
Gotha borders the following municipalities, which are all part of Gotha district: [[Goldbach, Thuringia|Goldbach]], [[Remstädt]], [[Bufleben]], [[Friemar]], [[Tüttleben]], [[Drei Gleichen]], [[Günthersleben-Wechmar]], [[Schwabhausen, Thuringia|Schwabhausen]], [[Emleben]], [[Leinatal]] and [[Hörsel, Thuringia|Hörsel]].

Gotha is divided in 11 districts. The urban districts are Mitte, Weststadt, West, Nord, Süd, Oststadt and Ost and the rural districts are Boilstädt (incorporated in 1994), Siebleben (1922), Sundhausen (1974) and Uelleben (1994).

=== Demographics ===
[[File:Saxonia Museum für saechsische Vaterlandskunde I 69.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|In 1835, Gotha was a mid-size town of 13,000 inhabitants]]
Gotha has long been one of the largest towns in Thuringia. During the Middle Ages, it was a town of 5,000 to 6,000 inhabitants and its selection as a ducal residence brought another impetus during the 17th and 18th century, so that Gotha had already more than 10,000 inhabitants by 1800. The number rose to 15,000 around 1850, as industrialisation started and the city was connected to the railway. The population saw a steady growth to 23,000 in 1875, 35,000 in 1900, 46,000 in 1925 and 58,000 in 1950, when the peak was reached. Until 1990, the population was roughly constant at around 57,000. After German reunification in 1990, the city saw a significant decline in population, it shrank to 48,000 by 2000 and to 44,000 by 2012. Between 2013 and 2016, the population rose in each consecutive year. In 2016 it reached 45,640.<ref name="Aktuelle Zahlen">{{Cite web|url=http://www.gotha.de/leben-in-gotha/stadtportraet/gotha-in-zahlen/aktuelle-zahlen.html|title=Aktuelle Zahlen|website=www.gotha.de|language=de|access-date=2017-11-16}}</ref>

The average decrease of population between 2009 and 2012 was -0.05% p.a, whereas the population in bordering rural regions is shrinking with accelerating tendency. Suburbanization played only a small role in Gotha. It occurred after reunification for a short time in the 1990s, but most of the suburban areas are situated within the administrative city borders. During the 1990s and the early 2000s, many inhabitants left Gotha to search for a better life in west Germany or other major east German cities like [[Jena]] or [[Erfurt]]. Since 2005, emigration is not a big issue anymore.<ref name="Aktuelle Zahlen"/> Today, the birth deficit, caused by the high average age of the population, is becoming a bigger problem because immigration is not sufficient to compensate for it in recent years.

Despite urban planning activities to tear down unused flats, vacancy was a problem with rates around 9% in 2011 but declined to 4% in 2017. A side effect of the high vacancy rate is Gotha's low rent level.

The birth deficit was 175 in 2012, this is -3.9 per 1,000 inhabitants (Thuringian average: -4.5; national average: -2.4). The net migration rate was +6.2 per 1,000 inhabitants in 2012 (Thuringian average: -0.8; national average: +4.6).<ref>[http://www.tls.thueringen.de/startseite_hinweis.asp Thüringer Landesamt für Statistik]</ref> The most important regions of origin of Gotha migrants are bordering rural areas of Thuringia as well as foreign countries like Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria.

Like other eastern German cities, foreigners account for only a small share of Gotha's population: circa 2.5% are non-Germans by citizenship and overall 7.1% are classified as migrants (according to the [[2011 EU census]]). In contrast to the national average, the largest groups of migrants in Gotha are [[Russians in Germany|Russians]], [[Vietnamese people in Germany|Vietnamese]] and [[Ukrainians in Germany|Ukrainians]].

Due to the official atheism of the former [[East Germany|GDR]], most of the population is non-religious. 18.2% are members of the [[Evangelical Church in Central Germany]] and 4.8% are Catholics (according to the 2011 EU census).