A report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation (OECD) has found that the birth rate in member countries has fallen to half of what it was 60 years ago. However, Germany’s birth rate is still higher than what was recorded in the mid-1990s.

Women in Germany are having fewer children later

In the past 60 years, the number of children born in OECD countries, which includes Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK, has fallen by half.

While women were having 3,3 children on average in 1960, this rate fell to 1,5 in 2022. In Germany, the 1960 rate sat at 2,4 children per woman and has now fallen to 1,5, but is still above the lowest rate observed in the mid-1990s, when women in Germany were having 1,2 children on average.

If they do decide to have children, women in OECD countries are also waiting longer: while the average age of a new mother in the bloc was 28,6 years old in 2000, it is now 30,9 years old. In Germany, the average age is slightly higher, rising from 28,8 years old in 2000 to 31,4 years old in 2022.

What is Germany doing to reckon with changing demographics?

In the report, the OECD warned that a further birthrate decline could have negative economic consequences. Germany is currently reckoning with a considerable shift in age demographics: according to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), by 2060 one in five people in Germany will be retired.

One major consequence of the changing demographics is already tangible; a record high worker shortage. To plug the gaps, politicians in the traffic light coalition hope that new policies, such as the Chancenkarte, easing citizenship rules and a tax break for newly-arrived workers, will entice new migrants. 

In a meeting with Indian students in Berlin recently, Labour Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) said that the government wants to send a “clear signal to India that bright minds and helping hands are welcome”.

In the throws of a housing crisis, doctor and teacher shortages, and with migration offices chronically overwhelmed and understaffed, Germany has drawn criticism for its lack of longer-term plans to make sure the infrastructure is there to support migrants when they arrive.

Thumb image credit: Natalia Deriabina / Shutterstock.com