Soltau (German pronunciation: [ˈzɔltaʊ]) is a mid-sized town in the Lüneburg Heath in the district of Heidekreis, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It has around 22,000 inhabitants. The city is centrally located in the Lüneburg Heath and is known nationwide especially for its tourist attractions like the Heide-Park and the Soltau-Therme. The name Soltau comes from Solt (salt) and au (meadow). The oldest list of townsfolk in the town book of 1452 enumerates 42 households in Soltau, this represents a good 200 inhabitants based on the conditions of the time. Around 1600 there were about 100 households in Soltau, this corresponds to some 500 inhabitants who lived in about 70 houses. The black death raged in 1626 and caused the population to plummet dramatically. After that, the number of inhabitants rose slowly at first; accelerating from 1940. The large increase in 1974 is due to the regional reform and the incorporation of 16 surrounding villages. Following a short drop in the numbers the population grew again in the 1990s and reached its maximum in 2005 at 22,044. According to internal censuses the town has even greater numbers, e.g. in 2001 23,508, but this is mainly due to the inclusion of those with second homes. Since then the numbers have dropped slowly. This trend should stop in the next few years according to a study by the Bertelsmann Foundation. For 2025 the study forecasts a population of 21,614. More information...
According to PR-model, soltau.de is ranked 187,110th in multilingual Wikipedia, in particular this website is ranked 16,078th in German Wikipedia.
The website is placed before starshindibio.in and after nationalsportstalenthunt.in in the BestRef global ranking of the most important sources of Wikipedia.
