Aging Germans could slow growth

Article Excerpt

The median age of the German population is now 47.1 years, the third oldest in the world. That’s behind only Japan and Monaco. In addition, the country’s birth rate in 2017 was very low at 8.6 births per 1,000. In contrast, the death rate was 11.6 deaths per 1,000. This combination led to a decline in the German population last year. Germany’s population pyramid (see main article) is described as “mature”—this indicates balanced proportions of the population in the child, working-age, and elderly age groups. On its current course, the country will gradually form an inverted triangle as its population growth continues to stagnate, or fall, and the proportion of seniors increases. This will eventually lead to a much higher ratio of older people to working-age Germans. That has negative implications for the size of the labour force, government tax revenues and costs for government health-care programs. One method to address the negative consequences of an inverted population pyramid is immigration. More…