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German population aging rapidly

DPA/The Local
DPA/The Local - [email protected]
German population aging rapidly
Photo: DPA

Germany is aging rapidly: By 2025 the number of Germans older than 80 will surge some 70 percent, a study released by the Bertelsmann Foundation on Monday said.

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While in 2006 every other German citizen was younger than 42, by 2025 half of the population will be older than 47, and in former East Germany older than 53. The percent of elderly people overall will nearly double to 8 percent.

The Bertelsmann Foundation’s demographic report Wegweiser Kommune included data on more than 3,000 cities and municipalities in Germany with more than 5,000 residents.

The places with the highest proportion of citizens older than 80 will be in eastern German cities such as Hoyerswerda (15.3 percent), Suhl (12.7 percent) and Dessau (12.1 percent). The foundation said that west German cities such as Baden-Baden (10.8 percent) will also “change their face.”

The affected cities will have to adapt to this aging population by making changes to their community, such as building age-accommodating apartments. “Our analyses show that life and coexistence in these cities and municipalities will change considerably due to the rapidly progressing aging process,” foundation director Johannes Meier said.

According to the foundation’s projections, the workforce will also age with the population. The group of older potential employees (45 to 64-years-old) will increase by 1.4 million by 2025, and at the same time the number of younger potential workers (25 to 44-years-old) will decrease by 3.7 million. The number of 16 to 24-year-olds is expected to decrease by 2 million people. In the states of Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern the number of younger gainfully employed people is expected to shrink by half.

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