The birth rate in Germany is now at its lowest level since 1946, with an estimated 654,300 children born last year, a decrease of 3.4% compared with 2024.
According to Destatis, Germany’s federal statistics office, this marks the fourth consecutive year of decline in the birth rate, while there has also been a widening gap between births and deaths.
Around 1.01 million deaths were recorded in 2025, resulting in a birth deficit of approximately 352,000. This represents the largest gap between births and deaths in the post-war period.
‘The low birth rates of recent years are attributable to two developments: the entry of the relatively small 1990s birth cohorts into the crucial fertile age of their early 30s, and the declining total fertility rate since 2022,’ Destatis noted.
Regional variations
Regional differences were also evident, with births falling more sharply in eastern Germany, where the decline was 4.5%, compared with 3.2% in western regions.
Hamburg was the only federal state to record a slight increase in births, rising by 0.5%, while Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania saw the largest decline, at 8.4%.
European trend
The decline in birth rate isn’t unique to Germany, with other EU countries, including France, Austria, Italy and Sweden, also reporting declining birth rates in 2025. In contrast, Spain, the Netherlands and Finland are showing signs of stabilisation.
Future projections suggest that any increase in birth rates in Germany would depend on a rise in the fertility rate and continued net immigration, according to Destatis. Even under these conditions, birth levels are expected to remain below the peak of around 795,000 recorded in 2021. Read more here.
