General

Duesseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is an economic centre of Germany and is located in the Rhein-Ruhr area, the country's most populated metropolitan area. The city is situated on the River Rhine, and is renowned for its many events and also for its fashion and trade fairs. Every July more than 4.5 million people visit the Größte Kirmes am Rhein funfair in Duesseldorf.


Population

17% of Düsseldorf's population are foreigners, which is a total of 98,686 people. The largest minority ethnic groups are Turkish, Greek, and Italian.
Duesseldorf has the third-largest Jewish community in Germany, with about 7,600 members, which is more than 0,1% of the city's population.
Duesseldorf and its surroundings has the third-largest Japanese community in Europe and the largest in Germany (about 11,000).


Quality of life

The Mercer's 2009 Quality of Living survey of cities with the highest quality of life ranked Düsseldorf sixth worldwide and first in Germany.


Transport and infrastructure

Duesseldorf International Airport, also referred to as Rhein-Ruhr Airport, is located eight kilometres (5 mi) from the city centre and can easily be reached by train or the S-Bahn urban railway. There is a long-distance train station served by regional and national services, which is linked to the airport by the SkyTrain, an automatic peoplemover. The (old) local station situated under the terminal building carries the S-Bahn line (S7) to the city's central station and to Solingen as well as a few selected night services.

The city is a major hub in the Deutsche Bahn (DB) railway network. More than 1,000 trains stop in Duesseldorf every day. The central railway station at Konrad-Adenauer-Platz is located in Duesseldorf's city centre. Several S-Bahn lines connect Duesseldorf to the other cities of Rhine-Ruhr. Local light rail Stadtbahn traffic as well as bus traffic is carried out by the city-owned Rheinbahn which operates within the VRR public transport system. The light rail system also serves neighbouring cities and is partially operated underground.


Culture and recreation

Duesseldorf is well-known for its Altbier,[15] a hoppy beer which translates as old [style] beer, a reference to the pre-lager brewing method of using a warm top-fermenting yeast like British pale ales.[16] Over time the Alt yeast adjusted to lower temperatures, and the Alt brewers would store or lager the beer after fermentation, leading to a cleaner, crisper beer than is the norm for an ale.

Duesseldorf's football team Fortuna Duesseldorf, the German Champions of 1933, competes in the 2. Liga. Their new stadium, the Esprit arena, opened in January 2005 and has a capacity of 51,500. Duesseldorf is one of nine 1974 FIFA World Cup cities and the Rochusclub Duesseldorf has hosted the tennis world team cup since 1978.

One of the biggest cultural events in Duesseldorf is the Duesseldorfer Karneval (also referred to as the "fifth season") which starts every year on 11 November at 11:11 a.m., and reaches its climax on Rosenmontag (Rose Monday), featuring a huge parade through the streets of Duesseldorf. Karneval ends on Aschermittwoch (Ash Wednesday). The Duesseldorf carnival is part of the traditional carnival festivities in the Rhineland.


Economy

Duesseldorf is not only widely known as a centre of the German advertising and fashion industries: in the last few years the city on the Rhine has become one of the top telecommunications centres in Germany. There are 18 internet providers located in the capital of North-Rhine Westphalia. With two of the four big German providers of mobile frequencies, D2 Vodafone and E-Plus, Duesseldorf leads the German mobile phone market. There are also many foreign trading centres in Duesseldorf such as NTT, Ericsson, Sandvik, Nokia and GTS.[citation needed] Before its dissolution LTU International, an airline, was headquartered in the city.



Sources

The text refers to the following source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%BCsseldorf#Quality_of_life

On the following link you can see a list of the authors:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=D%C3%BCsseldorf&action=history