In Bonn in 2015, more births were recorded than deaths. According to numbers from the State Office of Statistics in North Rhine Westphalia (NRW), 3,329 babies were born in Bonn in 2015 and 2,903 people died. This represents a natural population growth of 426. In the previous year, that number was 20.

Jürgen Dorbritz, Research Director at the Federal Institute for Population Research, explains, “Women are having more children than three or four years ago.” The number of average births per woman increased from 1.39 (2011) to 1.48 (2014) and will probably be a bit higher in 2015. There are more women between the ages of 25 and 35, and this is probably also a reason for the higher number of marriages. More couples are at the corresponding age. “Children are a central reason and motivation for marrying.”

Says sociologist Harald Rost, “People in Germany have now and always have had high expectations from parenthood.” After a lengthy education, many want to first enter their careers and have a decent size apartment. Fertility starts to decrease with 30 and instead of the two or three kids wanted, couples often have only one or two.

When it comes to the overall number of deaths in Germany, the rate has gone up - there were 925,000 deaths recorded in 2015; this is 6.5 percent more than the previous year. Dorbritz finds, “The gap between deaths and births won’t close, it will only get wider.” Further, “the Baby Boomers are coming now to the age where the chances of dying increase.” The only way to fill in the numbers is through immigration.

Rembrandt Scholz of the Max Planck Institute, sees it differently: “For that, one would need a massive immigration of at least 300,000 every year,” he says. Whether or not the society can handle that is questionable. He finds that a decreasing population is not necessarily a bad thing but rather neutral; it something that one can adapt to and make adjustments for in the social system. (Orig. text: Ira Schaible)