Children
OECD: Birth rate has halved within 60 years
In 2022, women in OECD member countries will have an average of only 1.5 children. In 1960, the average was 3.3. Photo
© Marijan Murat/dpa
In Germany and many other countries, women are having significantly fewer children than before. This is likely to have consequences for the economy. But governments can counteract this.
The birth rate per woman in the member states of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has shrunk by about half in the past 60 years. While women gave birth to an average of 3.3 children in 1960, in 2022 that figure was only about 1.5, the Paris-based OECD wrote in a report. The organisation warned that the low birth rate could have serious economic and social consequences.
According to the OECD, the level at which the population would be kept constant is 2.1 children per woman. According to the organisation, the lower rate means that the population is aging and therefore there is a risk that the proportion of people in the population will be working. This would mean that governments would have to spend more on pensions and health care.
According to the data, women in Germany had an average of 2.4 children in 1960. In 2022, the average was just under 1.5. The lowest birth rate was in the mid-1990s with 1.2 children per woman. According to the OECD, this was due to a decline in births in East Germany after reunification. According to the OECD, the birth rate is particularly low in South Korea. There, women had an average of 0.7 children last year.
Women are having children later and later
Nowadays, according to the OECD, women are also having children later. In 2000, mothers were on average 28.6 years old at the time of birth. In 2022, they were on average 30.9 years old. In Germany, the average age rose from 28.8 to 31.4 years in the same period.
According to Stefano Scarpetta, head of the OECD’s Labour and Social Affairs Division, OECD countries use many resources to support families. Nevertheless, “the economic costs and long-term financial insecurity of having children continue to strongly influence the decision to become a parent.”
More measures to support families
To make it easier for people to have children, states must provide comprehensive and reliable support to families. “This includes affordable housing, family policies that help reconcile work and family, and coherence with other policies that promote access to good jobs and career opportunities for women.”
The OECD unites countries that are committed to democracy and a market economy. In addition to large economies such as Germany, the USA and Japan, emerging countries such as Mexico and Chile are now members. A total of 38 countries belong to the OECD.