Wiesbaden, Germany - Germany's birth rate is sinking despite many years of tax breaks for parents and plans to expand kindergartens to help working parents, statistics released Monday show. Last year's tally of live births in the nation of 80 million was 672,700, a drop from the previous year by 13,100, the Federal Statistics Office said in Wiesbaden.
The total fertility rate of a German woman alive today was calculated at 1.33.
That is the average number of children that would be born to a woman between ages 15 and 49 if she followed the current behaviour in that age group. The rate declined from 1.34 last year.
The German government has voiced concern over the low birth rate, but opinion remains divided in Germany about how to encourage more births or if it is even possible to alter the birth rate by any government policy.
Germany has a long-standing tax rebate for children and education is free. The government has agreed to expand kindergarten provision, which would help families where both parents work.
