Family
Study: Fathers in Germany are getting older
The average age of fathers in Germany has been rising for years. photo
© Jens Büttner/dpa
Fathers in Germany are now on average around 35 years old when they have children. This was once the case in many countries. However, for completely different reasons.
The average age of fathers at the birth of their children is increasing Germany for several years. In 1991, the average age of fathers at the birth of their offspring was 31.0 years, as researchers from the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB) and the University of Oldenburg report in the journal “Human Reproduction”. In 2022, however, they were on average 34.7 years old. “This trend can be observed in many countries around the world,” wrote the BiB in Wiesbaden in a statement on Tuesday.
Historically, older ages are not unusual: in France around 1900, fathers were on average 34 years old when their offspring were born. Until the 1970s, this age fell to around 30 years, before increasing again from 1980 onwards. Similar trends have been documented for Sweden, Japan, the USA and other countries.
The role models changed
For Germany, data on the age of fathers at birth has only been available consistently since 1991. According to BiB, data from more than 4,000 birth cohorts in 140 countries were evaluated for the study. The analysis statistically refers to all children of fathers.
According to BiB, their high average age at the beginning of the 20th century in a number of countries can be explained in part by the fact that they started families relatively late for economic reasons. “At that time there were still many families with large children where the last children were born at a relatively old age,” it continues.
Later, fathers were able to earn more money at a younger age, which encouraged early families. The proportion of families with large children fell, meaning that many parents completed their family planning early. Fathers were statistically getting younger.
Then their average age at birth increased again. From the 1970s onwards, there were new career opportunities for women in many countries. The understanding of roles of women and men changed. Training became longer. All of this contributed to the increasing age of fathers, according to the analysis.