Over a quarter of the German population will be 67+ by 2035

According to figures released by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), over a quarter of Germany’s population will be aged 67 or older by 2035.

Germany’s population is getting older

In 2035, every fourth person living in Germany will be aged 67 or older. By comparison, in 2024 every fifth person living in the federal republic was 67 or older, according to figures from Destatis.

This means that by 2038, “depending on increased life expectancy, 20,5 to 21,3 million people will be of retirement age. That is around 3,8 to 4,5 million more than today,” Elke Loichinger, of Destatis’ population statistics department, said at a press conference in Berlin.

Already, for every 100 people of age to work in Germany, there are 33 people of retirement age. “In the best case scenario this will increase to 43 by 2070,” said Karsten Lummer, head of the population statistics department.

These figures are concerning because they would remove the balance which underpins the German pension system. Currently, working-age people pay the pensions of people who are retired, rather than retired people receiving the money they paid into their fund during their working lives.

In 1992, 2,7 working-age people funded the pension payments of one retired person, but thanks to longer life expectancies and overall falling birth rates, this burden now falls on 2,0 people, according to 2022 figures from the Demografieportal. By 2030, just 1,5 people will be responsible for paying the pension of one retiree.

Forecasted immigration isn’t enough to keep the scales in balance

In a special report published ahead of the federal election on February 23, 2025, the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) warned that economic stagnation is inevitable unless the country takes concrete steps to make it easier for people to immigrate to Germany.

The institute predicts 4,7 million existing employees will leave the German labour force between 2024 and 2028. The country doesn’t currently have the people it needs to fill those imminent vacancies. Unless these jobs are filled, the German economy will be “significantly curtailed”, the DIW explained at the beginning of the year.

Destatis’ figures confirmed that forecasted immigration rates to Germany aren’t enough to keep the scales of the pension system in balance. “[T]he number of people of working age (20 to 66) will decline until the mid-2030s due to the retirement of the large baby boomer generation and the arrival of the numerically smaller younger generations,” the organisation explained in its press release, “The resulting gap cannot be closed by the assumed migration gains.”

The statisticians expect that with moderate net immigration, the working-age population will decline to 41,2 million by 2070. With low net migration, it will decline to as low as 37,1 million. “A smaller decline of around 4,0 million people would only occur if there were a significant increase in the birth rate combined with high net migration.”

Neighbouring countries find themselves in a similar situation. For the first time ever, the Netherlands has more elderly residents over the age of 65 than young people under the age of 20. According to Statistics Netherlands (CBS), there are now approximately 3,76 million people in the 65+ category, compared to 3,72 million aged under 20.