25 percent of those giving birth are older than 35 years

Trend towards late pregnancy: More and more mothers are older than 35 years of age at birth

12/12/2012

The mothers in Germany are getting older and older at the birth of their child. About a quarter of all newborns in Germany had a mother in the last year of 2011 who was older than 35 years old. This reports the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB) today in Berlin. The statisticians observe that the trend is still rising. In East Germany, too, meanwhile, motherhood starts much later than it did a few decades ago.

Birth rates from 35 onwards increase in East and West
Of all the children born in Germany in 2011, about 25 percent had a mother who was either 35 years or older at birth. „In 1981, the reference value was still at 6 percent and has since quadrupled“, so the federal institute. To make it clear: At the time of the GDR, only every 50th child was affected by a mother over the age of 35.

The tendency to late birth is similar in East and West Germany. However, there are differences here. Among the children born in 1981 in the former GDR, only two percent had a mother who was over 35 years old. This already affected every fifth East German child (19 percent) last year. In the West, the cut is even higher at 25 percent.

Social conditions are changing
As a reason for the delayed pregnancies, the experts see the demographic change. Training times are getting longer and longer, working conditions are changing and the values ​​and standards are different today than they were 30 years ago. „Therefore, more and more women wait longer until they decide to have a child. Many young people, women as well as men, also want to realize other private goals and therefore realize children's wishes relatively late“, reports Jasmin Passet from the BiB. This also has consequences for the development of the population. „A late first birth shortens the period of childbearing ability and thus reduces the average number of children.“ Women today want to be just as successful in their career as men. Therefore, the average age of the mother is much higher today than it was 40 years ago.

Mothers are always older at first birth
In 2010, the highest birth rate in the age group of 30- to 34-year-olds occurred in Germany. In second place were the 25 to 29 year olds. While most children were born between the ages of 20 and 24 in the 1970s, this age group was replaced in 2002 by 30 to 34 year olds. According to a further evaluation of the health insurance companies, the birth rate of 40 to 44 year olds in 2011 rose by almost 50 percent. (Sb)

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