The number of young people and young adults in Germany continues to decline. Of the people who lived in Germany at the end of last year, 8.3 million were between 15 and 24 years old. This corresponds to a share of 10.0 percent.
The total population, on the other hand, has reached a new high: In 2021, more than 83.2 million people lived in Germany for the first time.
The Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden announced on Monday at the start of a three-week series of topics for the European Year of Youth that the number of people in this age group is both absolute and proportionally smaller than at any time since the beginning of the time series in 1950.
According to the information, the value has been falling continuously since 2005, with the exception of 2015. Young people would have made up the highest proportion of the total population in the first half of the 1980s, when the baby boomers, the so-called “baby boomers”, were in their teens. In 1983 there were still 13.1 million 15- to 24-year-olds, their share of the total population was 16.7 percent.
Bremen had the highest proportion in this age group (11.0 percent). It was followed by Baden-Württemberg (10.6 percent) and Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia (10.5 percent each).
In a European comparison, Germany is slightly below average. According to the figures from the EU statistical authority Eurostat, the proportion of 15 to 24-year-olds across the EU at the beginning of 2021 was an average of 10.6 percent.