What is he, a modern resident of Germany, what can be said about his family, education, work and salary? A new report from the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB) reflects changes in recent decades. The analytical report is based on data from the state and federal statistical offices of Germany, collected from 1991 to 2021. And some of the trends came as a surprise.
Germans are not in a hurry to get married
The traditional family model “father-mother-child” has been replaced by individual lifestyles. The Germans are in no hurry to tie the knot. Officially, a family is created by people of an older age. In 1991, a 40-year-old bachelor or unmarried woman was more of an exception. Now, on the contrary, more and more people over 30 prefer to remain independent. And it’s mostly men. One of the reasons is that statistically in Germany there are more men than women in this age group.
More and more people over 30 in Germany choose not to get married
There are also fewer couples with children who do not marry: in 1996, 40 percent of 30-year-old men and 53 percent of women of the same age lived and raised children together. Today, these figures have fallen to 24 and 37 percent, respectively. At the same time, over the past three decades, the number of childless families has increased, as well as single people, both with and without children. It is especially striking that last year almost every fourth man aged 40-44 lived alone and without children (for comparison, in 1996 only 16 percent).
Vocational education has become more popular
More and more Germans are pursuing higher or secondary vocational education. The proportion of men with a matriculation certificate that gives them the right to enter a university has increased to 45 percent, and of women to 48 percent. Approximately one third have a diploma from a vocational school or university. At the same time, five percent of Germans did not finish school.
The fact that more skilled workers are entering the labor market is helping to partially fill the shortage of workers arising from the retiring people born during the “baby boom” of the 1950s and 1960s, the authors of the study note. Most Germans between the ages of 15 and 65 work. Employment among women has increased significantly: if 30 years ago only half of them worked, now more than three-quarters. True, every second person aged 30 and older works part-time, combining work with raising children. It is also worth noting that among young people under 20 the number of employees has decreased, while among the elderly, on the contrary, it has increased. Thus, two-thirds of 60-65-year-old men work, among women, 57 percent of those.
Every second woman in Germany works part-time
There are also significant changes regarding the form of employment. If 30 years ago most men were workers, now they are employees. There are more than 60 percent of such people among the male part of the population, and about 80 percent among the female part. Of the four employees, three are employed in the service sector. Every tenth man and every twentieth woman are individual entrepreneurs. The proportion of those who are employed in the civil service among Germans has decreased, while among Germans, on the contrary, it has increased. In total, with the status of a civil servant in Germany, according to a study by BiB, only five percent of the population.
The data in the report show progress towards gender equality, for example in education and, to a lesser extent, in working life and pensions. At the same time, the wage gap has leveled off only marginally. By the way, in 2021, according to scientists, the median salary of Germans after taxes was 1,584 euros, which means that one half received less than this indicator, the other half received more.
Population aging slows down in Germany
In Germany today, about a quarter of the adult population and every second child under ten years of age have migration roots. This means that either the person himself or his parents come from other countries. Many of those who arrived in Germany several years ago have now become parents themselves, and there are often more children in such families than the national average. As a result, the researchers note, the aging of the population has noticeably slowed down.
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