There are no reliable figures or statistics on the number of intersex people in Germany. Estimates vary between 8,000 and 120,000 persons. They are based on projections as there is no agency collecting the data. One reason for the strongly deviating figures is the underlying definition of intersex people, among other things. In 2007, the Federal Government (Bundestag printed paper 16/4786) gave a figure ranging from 8,000 to 10,000 intersex persons in Germany and a frequency of intersex newborns of 1 in 4,500. However, only affected persons with “severe deviations of sexual development” are concerned here.

However, other estimates are a lot higher. The Intersex Society of North America, ISNA, for instance, estimates that about 1 in 100 newborns, so around 1 per cent, is born with physical characteristics deviating from the male or female “norm”.

Link to the ISNA website. The United Nations also states that up to 1.7 per cent of the population is born with intersex characteristics. Link to the fact sheet of the United Nations on the topic of intersex.