Germany’s birth rate last year was at its lowest since World War II, according to data released Tuesday by the federal statistics office Destatis. In total, the country saw 1.01 million deaths and just 654,300 births, a drop of 3.4 percent versus 2024.
The data and accompanying statement, cited by the Mandiner news portal, also noted that this is the fourth consecutive year that the number of births in Germany has decreased and represents the lowest figure since 1946.
The issue, as is the case for many Western countries, is that people are simply deciding to have fewer or no children. Destatis points to the less populous generations born in the 1990s, after the reunification of the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR; they have now entered their thirties, when it is customary to decide whether to have children, and are not. Another factor is simply that Germany’s fertility rate, the number of children a woman is expected ot have over her lifetime, has been decreasing since 2022.
It is worth noting that the drop of 4.5 percent in the eastern part of the country (the former GDR provinces) was more severe than the 3.2 percent decline in the western provinces of the country, according to the Destatis statement.
The only German state where the number of births increased was Hamburg, where 0.5 percent more babies were born.
Another issue is Germany’s aging population, with the country home to the oldest working age group in the European Union. According to data published in February, nearly a quarter of the country’s workers were between 55 and 64 years old, and the resulting labor shortage is already holding back growth in several sectors.
Data for 2024 shows that around 19 million people in Germany were aged 65 or older – about 23 percent of the total population, a figure that was only 15 percent in 1991. of the population was aged over 65.
A surprising addition to the statement was that Germany can improve on these present statistics “through an increase in the birth rate and at least moderate immigration.” This is a shock given the realities that Germany is having ot face due to all the problems immigration has brought.
Last July, Remix News wrote about Thilo Sarrazin, the author of “Deutschland schafft sich ab” (“Germany Is Abolishing Itself”), who sparked controversy this month with a revised edition of his bestseller.
“Back then, I predicted that within a few decades, Germans would become a minority in their own homeland,” Sarrazin said. “But it will come much sooner.”
