Population Changes In Germany

In the course of 55 years, Germany’s population has increased from 73.3 million in 1960 to 82.6 to the present day. It is predicted that by the next century, Germany’s population will drop to 56.9 million. Germany has an inconsistent amount of people in different age groups; more retired people than working age or children group. Hence, a multitudinous effect to the population, thus population change. Manifestly Germany’s population has evidently been decreasing right after the country has reached their highest peak; 82.5 million in 2006. From then on, the country’s population moderately decreases until the year 2012. In the year 2013, the population dropped in sudden to 80.33 million. This population change has concerned many, but the effects

Having large families have not been favoured since the 1970s where the country started developing and fertility rate began to drop. The fertility rate has been and is currently on 1.4 whereas the rate of 2.1 in which enables population stability. There were many causes to the unfavourable choice of large families, such as gender inequality. Most have suggested that due to the inequality between genders, “many working mothers find themselves quickly pushed into poorly paid ‘mini’ jobs” and an estimate of more than 4 million working women in Germany faces this issue (nytimes). The cause of the decrease in population, in general is impacted by the urban industrial society, unlike in rural areas where more children is encouraged for labour. In the cities, employment at such an early age is no longer needed, and in addition to this, to care for a child, it will take up a tremendous amount of money for education (etc.), hence, parents have fewer children. Looking at the population graph for the next century, it is predicted that the population will drop to 57 million. Considering that the current population is at 81 million, and that Germany has already reached its highest peak, the population will slowly decline from now on, leading to many concerns, yet also many

As opposed to economical benefit, there are many limitations. One may be that the government loses great power status with a declining population. With a bigger economy, governments are able to have bigger armies, bigger production, etc. Having less people and more emigrants leaving their country, it is difficult to do so for many governments, including Germany itself. With a declining population, the government’s economy will, too, decline due to the little occupations/participations, low amount of taxes, henceforth increasing the taxes for each individuals (however, mentioned previously, this may be a better solution). And lastly, the possibility of local residents traveling far to apply for the occupation in which one wishes for very likely due to the fall of employment (government.nl). This is what worries most governments, however, there more factors in which should be taken into consideration. Stated previously, taxes are more likely to increase for individuals in Germany due to increase of dependency ratio. Henceforth, individuals born in a year where the population has an uneven number of children, working age group, and retired people, they have the responsibility to pay more taxes for the abundance of retired elders. This may impact the government's choosing to whether increase the population or increase