La Germania entra nel club della fertilità “ultra-bassa” dell’UE

> Three more EU member states — including the most populous, Germany — have joined the list of countries with “ultra-low” fertility rates, highlighting the extent of the region’s demographic challenges.
Official statistics show Germany’s birth rate fell to 1.35 children per woman in 2023, below the UN’s “ultra-low” threshold of 1.4 — characterising a scenario where falling birth rates become tough to reverse.
Estonia and Austria also passed under the 1.4 threshold, joining the nine EU countries — including Spain, Greece and Italy — that in 2022 had fertility rates below 1.4 children per woman.
The fall in birth rates partially reflects the “postponement of parenthood until the 30s”, which involves a “higher likelihood that you will not have as many children as you would like because of the biological clock”, said Willem Adema, senior economist at the OECD.
Without immigration, low fertility rates mean a shrinking working-age population, adding pressures on public finances and limiting economic growth.
With young people reaching milestones, such as buying a house, later in life, the average age of EU women at childbirth rose to 31.1 years in 2023, a year later than a decade ago. The figure rises is 31.4 in Germany, and over 32 years in Spain, Italy and Ireland.
Austria reported a fall to 1.32 children per woman in 2023, down from 1.41 in the previous year. In Estonia, the rate hit 1.31 in 2023, down from 1.41 in the previous year.
Birth rates have fallen across Europe — even in countries such as Finland, Sweden and France, where family-friendly policies and greater gender equality had previously helped boost the number of babies.
In Finland, the birth rate was above the EU average until 2010, but it dropped to 1.26 in 2023, the lowest since the record began in 1776, according to official data.
France had the highest birth rate at 1.79 children per woman in 2022, but the national figures showed it dropped to 1.67 last year, the lowest on record.
Rates fell lower also in countries where they were already ultra-low, reaching 1.12 in Spain and 1.2 in Italy in 2023.
Guangyu Zhang, population affairs officer at the UN, called for governments “to put more family-friendly and gender-responsive policy measures in place”, saying this would enable women and men to have the multiple children that surveys claim they want.
Experts believe economic and political upheaval partly explain the trend of people having fewer children.
“You might have a job, but if you’re worried about losing it, or worried about inflation or worried about conflict in Ukraine, then you still might hesitate to have children,” said Ann Berrington, professor of demography at the University of Southampton.
Changes in social attitudes might also be at play.
Adema said: “The norms of what it means to be a good parent and how intensive you should participate in that are such that quite a few young people say: ‘Well, in addition to the fact that I don’t need children to be happy, it would also be a very difficult job for me to do, and I’m not sure that I can take that responsibility’.”

And my Ex

Everything is expensive and the world is going to hell extremely fast. (Democratic institutions are collapsing in favor of far right populism all over the world, the environment is collapsing and natural disasters are hitting more and more areas more frequently, and the rate of technological change is tearing apart the fabric of our societies. Of course people don’t want to fucking have kids. That’s not even to mention the fact that having kids sucks all the energy and dreams out of your life. It’s a giant MLM scheme where miserable people with kids try and convince other people to have kids so as to validate their shitty choices and to have someone else to be miserable with. No thanks.

Moved back to my parents and gained 20kg this year.. cant blame anybody except myself sadly

How will Germans afford retirement in a few decades? Who is going to pay for healthcare for all of the elderly?

Good, we don’t need no more of those people who elected Scholz, the greatest saboteur and traitorous agent, the biggest asset of Moskal federation.

I mean, no one wants to make more Germans. Nothing wrong with that.

Maybe raising wages and taxing billionaires will work? Just some food for thought.

The capitalist machine needs fuel Eh?

This is nothing to brag about. It means lack of housing and lack of time for social life.

2030: Free car if you make a baby
2040: Free house if you make a baby

Have you tried a three day weekend?

Have you tried affordable housing?

Have you tried higher wages?

You can’t win.

Child-free/childless/one child: “You’re so selfish”

More than 2 children/teen mother: “You should only have babies that you can afford!”

First time mom over 40: “You should have planned ahead better, you won’t be there to see your child grow up, so selfish” 

So people are having only planned children that they can afford, that’s very responsible of them. 

As should be pointed out this isn’t unique to Germany or the EU and is a worldwide developed nation issue

This is a crisis made up by the ultra rich. Pay no heed.