Posted on 03/18/2006 3:13:31 PM PST by NYer
BERLIN, Germany, March 17, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Germany’s birth rate is now the lowest in Europe. Only 8.5 babies were born in Germany last year for every 1,000 residents.
In 1964, 1.36 million babies were born in Germany. In 2005, half as many children were born, at just 680,000—the birth rate hasn’t been this low since the end of the Second World War, according to the Federal Statistical Office.
The German city of Chemnitz, in former East Germany, has the lowest birth rate in the world, with 6.9 babies born per 1,000 residents.
“The tradition in the 1950s, 60s and even the 80s in Germany was that a mother was only a mother and looked after the children,” Michael Hüther, who heads up Cologne’s economics institute, told the Guardian.
“We are reaching a critical point,” he said to Die Welt newspaper. “The number of births now determines what happens in the next decade-and-a-half to two decades. You can’t revise it afterwards. The availability of human capital will get worse, and act as a brake on growth.”
Efforts to shore up the birth rate have been mainly unsuccessful so far. Germany’s family minister Ursula von der Leyen introduced tax breaks last year to help couples that wanted children. Increased nursery places and a new state-funded welfare scheme requiring men to take two months off work for families to qualify were also introduced, but none of the changes have had a significant impact on the rate of birth.
All of Europe is facing the same plummeting birthrate. According to Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency, by 2050 Europe’s population will have fallen by around 1.5%, or 7 million people. The birth rate in Britain is at 12 births per 1,000 residents. In France the number is 12.7, in the Netherlands 11.9, and in Ireland 15.2.
In Eastern Europe and the Baltic states, birth rates are falling as well. Poland’s rate is 9.3, Bulgaria is at 9 and Latvia has one of the lowest rates, at 8.8.
If the Germans had the will to maintain their territorial integrity this problem might be survivable, no matter how far down they might go population-wise or economically they might come back, but if they let foreigners take over their territory they are through, forever. The problem is that the leadership and much of the population of Germany is infected with the disease of the modern West: cultural relativism so deep that they no longer believe they have a moral right to their own territory, indeed that it is positively evil to deny that territory to others. This is a fatal belief. Population and economic decline themselves are not.
Amazing. Never in history has a country been invaded and conquered by inviting in outsiders and then suicidally letting them take over the country by sheer numbers.
Sad, but true!
Understood everything but"sctuppworthy"..
Not just they, but people of all other faiths. Jews, CHristians, Buddhists, Hinduists...etc.
Sort of, the fraulein is worth rising to the occasion for.
Interesting statistics, thanks.
I think that the lower birthrate is a logical outgrowth of their societies.
I don't pretend to know the answer, I just was throwing out a possible reason. Maybe it was too personally based: I certainly would look at the society in which I was in before I made any decision to reproduce. Of course, it would be only one variable in the decision, but a big one.
On this subject, things aren't much better here in the US.
Particularly when one considers how much of this low birthrate is coming from the non-producers. Of course no one is going to write an article and make note that xx% of these 13.9 births are to welfare mommas with 5 kids or that xx% are to the socio economic class that will contribute nothing to the future productivity of our country. IOW, how many of these 13.9 are destined to be hamburger flippers?
http://usgovinfo.about.com/cs/censusstatistic/a/aabirthrate.htm
U.S. Birth Rate Hits All-Time Low
From Robert Longley,
Your Guide to U.S. Gov Info / Resources.
Teen birth rate also falls to record low
Continuing a 12-year decline, the U.S. birth rate has dropped to the lowest level since national data have been available, according to statistics just released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The rate of births among teenagers also fell to a new record low, continuing a decline that began in 1991.
The birth rate fell to 13.9 per 1,000 persons in 2002, down from 14.1 per 1,000 in 2001 and down a full 17 percent from the recent peak in 1990 (16.7 per 1,000), according to a new CDC report, "Births: Preliminary Data for 2002." CDC analysts say the birth rate is dropping as the increasing life span of Americans results in a smaller proportion of women of child childbearing age.
Found this quote from a 1998 "article" in the New York Times:
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/gray.htm
"The truth is there doesn't have to be a demographic catastrophe," said Lalla Golfarelli, the head of family planning in Bologna. "Look at a map. Look at Europe on that map. We are all only two to four hours away by boat or plane away from many countries with many people. Open the gates. Immigration can solve this problem. If people would just open their minds they would realize there are enough people on this earth to go around."
Hmm, now with IslamoFacists preparing to overrun Europe, I wonder if Ms Golfarelli is rethinking her statements above? Personally, I doubt it. She had to be an empty headed socialist to make the statement even then.
I'll bet not one of those countries is on Right Guard's Top 100 Countries By Sales Volume list.
Coincidence?
It is bothersome to me to think that such a substantial portion of the births may be occurring amongst the "non-producers" (as you so delicately--but accurately--put it).
If I had had children that would be especially of concern because without the United States benefitting from the children of the middle and upper classes, any progeny of mine would be faced with living in an eventual stagnant economy. They also would have to live in a country of increasing crime since the children of the underclass tend to turn to crime, being unable to either secure employment or hold it once gained.
Quite frankly, I am glad that I made the decisions that I did. That does not relieve me of concern for the folks who did go ahead and have children (including all of my immediate kin). I think that their children might be living in a country that is not nearly as good as the one we have now.
As for my wife and me, by the time things get really bad, we will have been dead, so I don't worry about us. There's something to be said about being old nowadays.
And if the Western countries do not act effectively to resolve the problem of the Islamic terrorists or even the problem of the Islamists tearing down the cultural structures of the countries they move to, things could get even worse. As a Chinese curse goes, "May you live in interesting times."
If you think about the prospects of children born to unwed mothers, then look at these numbers, it is very discouraging. And, imagine what these numbers must look like for 2005.
Um, it goes without saying that these stats are just for *legal citizens*. 
I have captured a significant graph, but the entire PDF is here:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr47/nvs47_29.pdf
Yes, I suppose. The Egyptians almost let it happen with Israel also, but Israel left - with a bit of supernatural help.
Soon that skirt she's wearing will have to go down below her ankles, with that hat covering her face. That is the future of German culture.
I don't see how the birthrate is down. The girls in Germany must have changed since I was a young, single soldier in the late 1970's.
Australia comes to mind....
The least we could do for Germany would be to send them ten or fifteen million *Hispanic* illegal Mexicans formerly resident where they didn't belong.
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