Fewer German women are having children, particularly in west

Jul 29, 2009, 16:56 GMT

Berlin - Fewer women in Germany are having children, statistics revealed on Thursday, confirming a growing trend.

In the year 2008, 21 per cent of German women aged 40 to 44 did not have children of their own.

Shifting the category by 20 years, the proportion of childless women born between 1944 and 1948 drops to 12 per cent.

The proportion of childless women significantly lowered the German birth rate, according to the studies conducted by the national statistics office in which 260,000 women were questioned between the ages of 15 and 75.

The study also revealed a clear division between the east and west of the country, 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

In the former communist states, 8 per cent of women aged 40 to 75 were childless. In the states formerly belonging to West Germany, the figure was 16 per cent, and rose to 28 per cent for women with academic qualifications.

'The figures show that the politics of the last decades has reacted too slowly to changing living conditions,' said Family Minister Ursula von der Leyen. Von der Leyen, herself a mother of seven, said the idea that women had to decide between career or children had to change.

Immigrant women have more children than women born in Germany, the research showed. While 13 per cent of immigrant women aged 35 to 44 were childless, the corresponding figure for German-born women stood far higher, at 25 per cent.

With 1.37 births per woman in 2007, Germany compares badly to its European neighbours. France leads the field with 1.9, followed by Sweden and Norway where, on average, 1.8 children are born per woman.

'The new data offers a substantial basis for family politics, research and demographic projections,' said the head of the office for statistics Roderich Egeler.

Germany's ageing population structure made it important to have a clear picture of demographic developments, Egeler said.