With an area of 47,618 km and nearly eight million inhabitants, Lower Saxony (German Niedersachsen) lies in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the countrys sixteen Bundesl nder (federal states). ... The flags of the German states usually come in two variants: one variant (the simple striped flag) is for the use by everybody (civil flag); the other variant, showing the state arms is for government use only (state service flag). ...