Women in Bavaria are having more children again. The number of births per woman, the so-called total birth rate or Total Fertility Rate (TFR), rose to 1.61 last year, the State Office for Statistics said on Tuesday in Fürth. The average in 2021 was just below the previous record of 1.73, which was achieved in 1972. In 2020, the statistical value was still 1.55 children. The birth rate for foreign women is higher than for Germans.
The Neustadt an der Waldnaab district in Upper Palatinate had the highest birth rate of any Bavarian district, at 2.00. The Upper Palatinate is also the administrative district with the strongest increase in the past ten years. According to the statisticians, the region with the lowest reproduction rate in Bavaria is Upper Franconia with 1.55 births per woman.
All university cities in Bavaria have the lowest rates: Passau with 1.15 children per woman, Bayreuth with 1.20 children, Regensburg with 1.23 and Erlangen with 1.25 children. The background is a statistical effect: In these cities there are comparatively many young women of childbearing age, but many postpone family planning because of studying and starting a career.