The proportion of young people in Germany reached a new low last year. At the end of 2020, of the 83.2 million people in Germany, 8.4 million were in this age group, which corresponds to 10.1 percent of the population, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Tuesday for Youth Day on Thursday. With the exception of 2015, the number and proportion of young people in Germany has been falling steadily since 2005.
According to the statistics office, the group of young people has recently become smaller and smaller. It is now the lowest number – in absolute terms and in proportion to the population – since statistics began in 1950.
People born after the mid-1990s are sometimes referred to as “Generation Z”. The age structure differs greatly from region to region in a nationwide comparison. Bremen had the highest proportion of 15 to 24 year olds with 11.1 percent. In Baden-Württemberg the proportion was 10.8 percent, in Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia 10.6 percent.
The proportion of young people was lowest in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania with 8.2 percent, Saxony-Anhalt with 8.1 percent and Brandenburg with 7.9 percent. On average in the 27 EU countries, the proportion of young people was 10.6 percent, slightly higher than in Germany.
The share of young people was highest in Germany with 16.7 percent each in 1982, 1983 and 1984. In 1983 alone there were 13.1 million 15- to 24-year-olds in Germany, 4.6 million more than last year in 2020. That can be traced back to the baby boomers, who were young at the beginning of the 1980s, according to statisticians. (kna)
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