Enlarge image
Newborn's Feet: "A Clear, Strong Growth"
Photo: Arno Burgi/ dpa
With 795,492 newborns, around 22,000 more babies were born in 2021 than in the previous year, according to the Federal Statistical Office.
In 2021, the combined birth rate rose again for the first time since 2017, the authority announced on Wednesday.
While 1.53 children were born per woman in 2020, the birth rate last year was 1.58 children per woman.
The relatively stable situation on the labor market in connection with the special situation of the corona pandemic at the time of conception is said to have contributed to this increase.
"It is definitely a clear, strong increase," said a spokeswoman for the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden.
Since the increase is mainly due to births in the first and fourth quarters, the reasons are likely to be complex: »For births in the first quarter, the time of conception is in the first lockdown, when people were still optimistic that Corona would soon be over« , said the spokeswoman.
Thanks to short-time work benefits and subsidies, the economic situation of many people was also safer.
Since the newborns were mainly other children of married parents, the lockdown was probably used for family planning.
The rise in births in the fourth quarter of 2021 is more of a mystery to statisticians.
Because the time of conception was in a “rather difficult time”: the autumn lockdown of 2020 was not over yet, the wait for a vaccination continued.
"We still have too little data on which families are affected," said the Federal Statistical Office.
The microcensus that is currently being carried out could provide new insights.
The birth rate rose above all in the western federal states – the strongest in Baden-Württemberg with an increase of five percent, followed by Bavaria and Hesse with four percent each.
In the eastern German federal states, the increase in the birth rate was only one to two percent, in Thuringia and Saxony it even fell slightly.
The highest birth rate was registered in Lower Saxony in 2021 with 1.66 children per woman.
It was lowest in Berlin at 1.39.
Mothers on average 31.8 years old at birth
Among women with German citizenship, the birth rate was 1.49 children per woman last year, significantly higher than in 2020. At that time, 1.43 children were born per woman.
Among women with foreign citizenship, the birth rate remained almost unchanged at 2.01 children per woman.
In the case of the woman's first-born child, the average age of the mothers last year was 30.5 years, and the average age of the father was 33.3 years.
On average, mothers were 31.8 years old when they gave birth in 2021, fathers 34.7 years.
wit/dpa
