The number of children per woman in Germany decreased from 1.57 in 2018 to an average of 1.54 last year, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced on Wednesday.
Also, women in Germany would "have their first child later and later in life," Destatis noted.
In 2019, mothers in Germany were on average 30.1 years old at the time of their first birth. Ten years ago, the average age of first-time mothers had only been 28.8 years, according to Destatis.
Within the last three decades, the number of German women who became mothers at the age of 40 years or above had almost tripled, Destatis recently announced.
The trend towards later maternity among German women has many reasons. As the number of working women in Germany increases, many are postponing the decision to have children. Also, medical progress has increasingly made late maternity possible.
In 2018, more than three in four women aged 20 to 64 years in Germany were in employment. The share of women in employment had risen by 8 percentage points since 2008.
According to the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat), the total fertility rate in Germany in 2018 was slightly higher than the EU average. Germany thus ranked 13th across all EU countries. The highest fertility rate was recorded in France, the lowest in Malta.
Destatis already announced two weeks ago that the number of newborn babies in Germany in 2019 fell by almost 10,000 compared with the previous year to a total of 778,100.
The "long-term demographic trend" of more deaths than births in Germany that emerged since 1972, had also continued in 2019, Destatis noted. By 2060, Destatis is expecting Germany's population to shrink from currently more than 83 million to less than 75 million.
