Overview

• Gießen’s lawsuit marks the second active court challenge against the 2022 census results after Fulda filed its own action earlier this year.
• The city disputes a 6,000-person downward adjustment that underlies municipal funding allocations in Hesse’s financial equalization system.
• Officials warn that the revised headcount could cost Gießen about €8.6 million annually in state revenue sharing.
• More than 40 other Hessian municipalities have filed formal objections to their revised population figures, though most have not yet advanced to legal proceedings.
• The Statistical State Office in Wiesbaden maintains its household surveys and estimations are scientifically validated and court-approved, reporting no errors in the census methodology.