statistics
20 percent of women between 45 and 49 are childless
A mother with a child: A fifth of women in Germany remain childless. photo
© Patrick Pleul/dpa
A fifth of all women in Germany had no children of their own by the time they were of childbearing age. However, there are regional differences.
Every fifth woman between the ages of 45 and 49 in Germany did not have any biological children in the past year. The so-called childless rate at the end of childbearing age has remained almost unchanged at 20 percent over the past ten years, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Wednesday in Wiesbaden. 15 years ago the rate was a little lower at 17 percent.
Looking at the data from 2022, there are clear regional differences: the rate in western Germany (20 percent) was significantly higher than in eastern Germany (excluding Berlin), where it was 14 percent. Looking at the individual federal states, women born between 1973 and 1977 in the city states of Hamburg (29 percent) and Berlin (25 percent) were significantly more childless than in Thuringia, for example, where the rate was 13 percent.
In addition, the data varied depending on the level of education: for women between 45 and 49 years of age with a high level of education, the childless rate was 23 percent. In contrast, the figure was 21 percent for medium-level education and only 11 percent for people with a low level of education.
And: Women who were born in Germany or who immigrated as girls under the age of 15 were more often childless at a rate of 22 percent than women who immigrated aged 15 and over (12 percent).