Germany’s population is set to shrink 5% by 2050, much faster than previously anticipated, new forecasts suggest.
The shift risks further straining a pension system that already accounts for about a quarter of the country’s budget. Previous predictions had underestimated present population, net migration, and birthrate decline.
Other countries have similar problems — Japan and China both saw plummeting birth rates in 2025.
But “there is no powerful reason to fear declining populations,” the Financial Times’ chief economics commentator argued: While there will be more pensioners dependent on fewer workers, there will also be fewer children dependent on their parents, and rising retirement ages and AI-fueled productivity could stave off economic collapse.
