Editing Demographics of Germany (section)

== Social issues ==
Most childbirths in Germany happen within marriage. Out of 778,080 births in 2019, 258,835 were to unmarried parents,<ref name="Familienstand">{{cite web |access-date=1 July 2021 |title=Unmarried births |url=https://www-genesis.destatis.de/genesis/online?operation=abruftabelleBearbeiten&levelindex=2&levelid=1625173175965&auswahloperation=abruftabelleAuspraegungAuswaehlen&auswahlverzeichnis=ordnungsstruktur&auswahlziel=werteabruf&code=12612-0004&auswahltext=&werteabruf=Werteabruf#abreadcrumb}}</ref> which means that around 33% or one third of the children are born out of wedlock, while two thirds are within. This percentage of unmarried birth has long been growing and reached 33% in 2010, more than twice of what it was in 1990.<ref>[[Handelsblatt]] (12 August 2011): "Familienplanung: Uneheliche Babys im Vormarsch" [https://archive.today/20130125162210/http://www.handelsblatt.com/lifestyle/gesellschaft/uneheliche-babys-im-vormarsch/4493378.html]</ref> However, in recent years it has started to stagnate or even decrease.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Children born outside of marriage Germany 1950–2021 |url=https://www.statista.com/statistics/1094231/children-born-outside-of-marriage-germany/ |access-date=2023-06-26 |website=Statista |language=en}}</ref>

The Mikrozensus done in 2008 revealed that the number of children a German woman aged 40 to 75 had, was closely linked to her educational achievement.<ref name="Statistisches Bundesamt 2008">Statistisches Bundesamt. Mikrozensus 2008. Neue Daten zur Kinderlosigkeit in Deutschland. p. 27ff</ref>
In Western Germany, women with tertiary education had the highest rates of childlessness — 26% stated that they were childless. This rate dropped to 16% for those with intermediate education, and 11% for those with only compulsory education.
In Eastern Germany however, 9% of the most educated women of that age group and 7% of those who had an intermediary education were childless, while 12% of those having only compulsory education were childless.

The reason for that east-western difference is that the GDR had an "educated mother scheme" and actively tried to encourage first births among the more educated. It did so by propagandizing the opinion that every educated woman should "present at least one child to socialism" and also by financially rewarding its more educated citizen to become parents. The government especially tried to persuade students to become parents while still in college and it was quite successful in doing so. In 1986, 38% of all women, who were about to graduate from college, were mothers of at least one child and an additional 14% were pregnant and 43% of all men, who were about to graduate from college, were fathers of at least one child. There was a sharp decline in the birth rate and especially in the birth rate of the educated after the fall of the Berlin wall. Nowadays,{{When|date=March 2015}} 5% of those about to graduate from college are parents.

The more educated a Western German mother aged 40 to 75 was in 2008, the less likely she was to have a big family.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="5" style="text-align:center;" class="hintergrundfarbe5"| Percent of Western German mothers having 1, 2 and 3 or more children by educational attainment
|- class="hintergrundfarbe5"
!  style="text-align:center; width:160px; vertical-align:top;"| number of children
!  style="text-align:center; width:160px; vertical-align:top;"| compulsory education
!  style="text-align:center; width:160px; vertical-align:top;"| intermediary education
!  style="text-align:center; width:160px; vertical-align:top;"| highest education
|- style="text-align:center;"
| one child    || 22 || 30 || 31
|- style="text-align:center;"
| two children  || 39 || 48 || 48
|- style="text-align:center;"
| three or more children || 39 || 22 || 21
|-
| colspan="5" style="text-align:center;"|<ref name="Statistisches Bundesamt 2008. p.29">Statistisches Bundesamt. Mikrozensus 2008. Neue Daten zur Kinderlosigkeit in Deutschland. p.29</ref>
|}

The same was true for a mother living in Eastern Germany in 2008.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="5" style="text-align:center;" class="hintergrundfarbe5"| Percent of Eastern German mothers having 1, 2 and 3 and more children by educational attainment
|- class="hintergrundfarbe5"
!  style="text-align:center; width:160px; vertical-align:top;"| number of children
!  style="text-align:center; width:160px; vertical-align:top;"| compulsory education
!  style="text-align:center; width:160px; vertical-align:top;"| intermediary education
!  style="text-align:center; width:160px; vertical-align:top;"| highest education
|- style="text-align:center;"
| one child    || 23 || 33 || 33
|- style="text-align:center;"
| two children  || 37 || 46 || 51
|- style="text-align:center;"
| three or more children || 40 || 21 || 16
|-
| colspan="5" style="text-align:center;"|<ref name="Statistisches Bundesamt 2008. p.29"/>
|}

In 2011, this trend was reversed in Eastern Germany, where more highly educated women now had a somewhat higher fertility rate than the rest of the population.<ref>Bundesintitut für Bevölkerungsforschung 2012. Talsohle bei Akademikerinnen durchschritten? Kinderzahl und Kinderlosigkeit in Deutschland nach Bildungs- und Berufsgruppen. Expertise für das Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend. p. 14</ref>

Persons who said they had no religion tend to have fewer children than those who identify as Christians, and studies also found that conservative-leaning Christians had more children compared to liberal-leaning Christians.<ref name="michael_blume">{{cite journal|author1=Michael Blume|author2=Carsten Ramsel|author3=Sven Graupner|title=Religiosität als demografischer Faktor – Ein unterschätzter Zusammenhang?|journal=Marburg Journal of Religion|volume=11|date=June 2006|url=http://www.blume-religionswissenschaft.de/pdf/blume_germ2006.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425090600/http://www.blume-religionswissenschaft.de/pdf/blume_germ2006.pdf |archive-date=2012-04-25 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Michael Blume (2008) [http://www.wissenschaft-online.de/artikel/982875 ''Homo religiosus''], Gehirn und Geist 04/2009. S. 32–41.</ref>

A study done in 2005 in the western German state of [[Nordrhein-Westfalen]] by the HDZ revealed that childlessness was especially widespread among scientists. It showed that 78% of the women scientists and 71% of the male scientists working in that state were childless.<ref>Nicole Auferkorte-Michaelis, [[Sigrid Metz-Göckel]], Jutta Wergen, Annette Klein. 2005: "Junge Elternschaft und Wissenschaftskarriere - Wie kinderfreundlich sind Deutschlands Universitäten". Hochschuldidaktisches Zentrum HDZ</ref>

=== Homelessness ===
{{excerpt|Homelessness in Germany}}