Germany's Dying

With the understanding that the AP is a suspect organization and it's "stories" are often no more than tall tales, here is an AP story that validates Mark Steyn's often stated opinion on the demographic catastrophe overtaking Europe:

BERLIN (AP)--Germany's population fell for a fourth consecutive year in 2006 and recorded the biggest drop since the country's reunification in 1990, the government said Friday, days after launching financial incentives designed to stall falling birth rates.

The number of births, meanwhile, was the lowest since World War II.

At the end of 2006, the number of people living in Germany stood at an estimated 82.31 million, 130,000 below the total at the end of 2005, the Federal Statistics Office said.

Germany's population grew in 2001 and 2002. But since then, a birth rate among the lowest in Europe has contributed to widening annual declines of 5,000, 31,000 and 63,000.

Last year, deaths outnumbered births by 150,000, compared to 144,000 in 2005, the statistics office said.

German officials have been reluctant to permit easier labor immigration, despite complaints from industry that they cannot find skilled workers for some jobs. Demographers and economists say the problem will only grow worse, and that an aging population will put serious strains on pension funding and on the economy for lack of workers.

A recent government study forecast that the population could fall as low as 69 million by 2050.

In 2006, births fell from the 686,000 recorded in 2005. The agency gave only a range of 670,000 to 680,000 for 2006. That would be the lowest since World War II and far below the 922,000 births recorded in 1946, when the country lay in ruins after its defeat in World War II.

The population decline was also caused by a drop in net immigration, from 79,000 in 2005 to between 20,000 and 30,000 in 2006.

Starting Jan. 1, the parents of newborn children are entitled to share up to 14
months of leave from their jobs and receive about two-thirds of their net salaries in a bid to encourage couples to have more children.

The move, designed particularly to help working moms have more children, follows similar moves in other European countries concerned about their aging populations.



(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-05-07 1351ET

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