Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the seventh-largest city in Germany, with a 2022 population of 629,047. The Düssel, from which the city and the borough of Düsseltal take their name, divides into four separate branches within the city, each with its own mouth into the Rhine.