Records from Germany’s Federal Statistical Office have shown that the country’s population stagnated in 2020, a development said to be the first in nearly a decade in the nation.
As shown, 83.2 million people lived in Germany at the end of 2020, which was said to be almost the same as the previous year under review.
Giving the breakdown in new data released on Monday, the Federal Statistical Office said that the annual population had continuously edged upwards, from 80.3 million to 83.2 million in the years 2011 to 2019.
The statisticians said there were two primary reasons for the flat growth in 2020, a year dominated by the pandemic; Immigration and an ageing population.
The data showed that in the first case, net immigration fell from 294,000 in 2019 to 209,000 in 2020, and secondly, the difference between deaths and births has continued to increase.
“In the past year, 212,000 more people died than children were born. In 2019, the birth deficit was 161,000. The number of older people continues to rise: The tally of people aged 80 and over increased by 4.5 per cent to 5.9 million within a year.
“The number of those aged 60 to 79 increased slightly to 18.2 million, a climb of 0.5 per cent. In contrast, the number of people between 20 and 59 years of age decreased by 0.4 per cent and amounted to around 43.7 million.
“Some 15.3 million residents were classified as children and youth, a count that remained almost unchanged compared to the previous year. Overall, the mean age of Germany’s population increased by 0.1 to 44.6 years,” the data showed.
