since 1959, gera has had more than 100,000 inhabitants. the highest number of inhabitants of gera was 134,834 in the year 1988. since the german reunification, the number of inhabitants becomes smaller and smaller. now there are fewer people who live in gera than in jena, so gera is only the third-biggest city in thuringia. on 31 december 2008, there were only 100,643 people living in gera.