Freistaat Bayern  (German) Freistoot Bayern  (Bavarian)
State
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem: Bayernhymne  (German) "Hymn of Bavaria"
Coordinates: 48°46′39″N 11°25′52″E / 48.77750°N 11.43111°E / 48.77750; 11.43111
Country	Germany
Capital	Munich
Government
• Body	Landtag of Bavaria
• Minister-President	Markus Söder (CSU)
• Governing parties	CSU / FW
• Bundesrat votes	6 (of 69)
Area
• Total	70,550.19 km2 (27,239.58 sq mi)
Population  (2019-12-31)
• Total	13,124,737
• Density	186/km2 (480/sq mi)
Population
• Official languages	Bavarian Standard High German
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	DE-BY
GRP (nominal)	€633 billion (2019)
GRP per capita	€48,000 (2019)
NUTS Region	DE2
HDI (2018)	0.947 very high · 6th of 16
Website	https://www.bayern.de

Bavaria (/bəˈɛəriə/; German: Bayern, [ˈbaɪɐn]), officially the Free State of Bavaria (German: Freistaat Bayern, [ˈfʁaɪʃtaːt ˈbaɪɐn] ( listen); Bavarian: Freistoot Bayerncode: bar is deprecated ), is a State (Bundesland) of Germany. The territory of this state is the largest of the 16 German states. The state capital is Munich with 1.5 million people. About 13.1 million people live in Bavaria.

Like many German states, Bavaria was once independent. Ludwig II of Bavaria was its last independent king. Bavaria joined the German Empire in 1871.