The number of German births in 2008 has been revised downwards. According to the German statistical office, there were only 675,000 births in Germany last year, which is less than had been initially announced.
Quote:
Press release No.137 / 2009-04-07
2008: More deaths and marriages, slightly fewer births
WIESBADEN – As reported by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on the basis of provisional results, the number of live births in Germany in 2008 (675,000 children) was slightly down by 1.1% on the previous year (683,000).
The provisional annual result is below the estimate of about 680,000 to 690,000 births, which had been calculated by Destatis at the beginning of this year on the basis of data available at the time (press release of 7 January 2009). The reason is the slower development of births in the last few months of 2008, which can be observed now.
As regards deaths, an increase by 20,000 cases or 2.4% to 844,000 was recorded for 2008. Hence, the number of children born in 2008 was by 168,000 smaller than the number of persons who died. In 2007 the balance of live births and deaths was –141,000 according to provisional data.
In 2008, 375,000 couples married, while in the previous year the number was 368,000. This means that the number of marriages increased by 7,000 or 1.8% in the period examined.
Regarding the final annual result for 2008, insignificant changes may still occur because the provisional result does not yet contain all data reported.
http://www.destatis.de/jetspeed/port...nderPrint.psml
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It seems that the Elterngeld ("Parents' Money") scheme introduced in late 2006 to boost the German birth rate has produced very little effects. After a little bump in 2007 (the number of births increased from 672,724 in 2006 to 684,862 in 2007 as some parents took advantage of the money offered), the number of German births was back to 675,000 in 2008.
In comparison, in 2008 there were 834,000 births in France, i.e. 159,000 more than in Germany, which is the highest surplus of French births vs. German births recorded since the First French Empire (1804-1814).
In the 9 years between 2000 (included) and 2008 (included) there were 6,351,500 births in Germany vs. 7,284,500 births in France.