Data released Tuesday by the Federal Statistical Office reveals that the proportion of young people in Germany remains at a historically low level. At the close of 2024, approximately 8.3 million individuals aged 15 to 24 resided in the Federal Republic, representing 10.0 percent of the total population. This figure has remained largely unchanged since the end of 2021.
The stabilization of this demographic indicator is largely attributed to migration, specifically the influx of younger individuals following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Without this migration, the proportion of young people within the overall population would have been even lower. A separate analysis based on microcensus data indicates that the demographic share drops to 8.6 percent when examining only the native-born population, contrasting with 12.0 percent – or one in eight people – within families with an immigration background.
Regional disparities in the youth population are also notable. City-states like Bremen (11.1 percent) and Hamburg (10.5 percent), alongside the state of Baden-Württemberg (10.5 percent), recorded the highest proportion of individuals aged 15 to 24 at the end of 2024. Conversely, Brandenburg (8.7 percent) and the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Saxony-Anhalt (8.9 percent each) reported the lowest proportions.
According to statistics from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, Germany had a lower proportion of young people relative to the average of all 27 EU member states (10.7 percent) as of the beginning of 2024. Ireland led the EU with 12.6 percent of its population aged 15 to 24, followed by the Netherlands (12.3 percent) and Denmark (12.2 percent). Bulgaria and Lithuania registered the lowest proportions within the EU, at 9.2 percent and 9.5 percent respectively.
