Policies in favor of families and the benefits offered by the German government have meant that the birth rate in the German country has not suffered as much from the effects of the pandemic.
Germany, which has historically had one of the lowest birth rates in Europe, began to change the dynamics in terms of birth rates from 2005, with new policies that benefit parents and investment in childcare, and It has been one of the few countries that has overcome the pandemic without great damage to the number of births. Thus, while the official Eurostat data show an 18% drop in births in China and a 4% drop in birth rates in the United States in 2020, in Germany the drop in the last year was only 0.6%. In addition, the latest data also indicate that, between December 2020 and January 2021, in Germany the number of births even increased by 0.8%, compared to the same period of the previous year.
Despite these good data, the German fertility rate is 1.54 children per woman, still far from the rate of 1.64 in the United States and the so-called replacement rate of 2.1 that is considered necessary to maintain population levels. Still, it is above the rate of 1.3 recorded in China. While other European countries have seen their birth rates fall, everything indicates that the trend in Germany will continue, and another proof of this is that in vitro fertilization treatments in the country increased by 9.3% in 2020. In addition, the The rapidity with which the German government assured people that the state would pay them if they could not work while their businesses were closed also encouraged future parents to have children.
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