By Ishmael Hormess
Since the Federal Republic was founded, there have never been so few young people living in Germany as there are today!
This is the result of new figures from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). According to this, only 8.3 million people aged 15 to 24 lived in Germany at the end of 2021. This corresponds to a share of only 10.0 percent of the total population.
For comparison: 40 years ago every sixth person in Germany was still a youngster. Our youth is fading, Germany is getting old and there seems to be no end in sight…
With one single exception (the year 2015), the number and proportion of young people has been falling continuously since 2005. According to Destatis, the number of young people, both in absolute terms and proportionally, is smaller than at any time since data collection began in 1950.
The 15- to 24-year-olds had the highest proportion of the total population in the first half of the 1980s, when the baby boomer generation, the so-called baby boomer generation, was young.
▶︎ In 1983, the 13.1 million people aged 15 to 24 made up 16.7 percent of the total population.
The total population, on the other hand, has reached a new record high: in 2021, more than 83.2 million people lived in Germany for the first time.
Less young in the east
The age structure and also the proportion of young people differs from federal state to federal state.
︎ The city-state of Bremen had the highest proportion of 15 to 24-year-olds at eleven percent at the end of 2021. It was followed by Baden-Württemberg with 10.6 percent and Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia with 10.5 percent each.
︎ The fewest young people lived in Brandenburg (eight percent), closely followed by Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, each with 8.3 percent.
The East is therefore aging the most.
Fewer young people in Germany than the EU average
And also in an EU comparison, Germany is getting older.
According to the EU statistical authority Eurostat, at the beginning of 2021 there were 10.1 percent fewer young people in Germany than the EU average for all 27 member states (10.6 percent).
︎ EU-wide, Ireland had the highest proportion of 15 to 24 year olds with 12.6 percent, ahead of Denmark and Cyprus with 12.3 percent each. The fewest young people within the EU live in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, each with a share of nine percent, followed by Latvia with 9.2 percent.
