The German statistical office has this week released the German age pyramid as of Jan. 1, 2010. I have superimposed it on the French age pyramid. It shows the historical scissor movement between these two countries that is taking shape under our eyes (the last scissor movement, when the German generations passed the French generations in numbers, took place in the 1820s).
On the age pyramids you can see:
- the effect of the Third Reich's natalist policies from 1934 to 1944
- the collapse of French births in 1940
- the collapse of German births in 1945
- the very strong German baby-boom in the 1950s and 1960s, which wasn't the result of a particularly high German fertility rate (fertility in Germany at the time was lower than in France), but which was due to the fact that the women born during the Third Reich reached child-bearing age
- the sharp end of the German baby-boom around 1970, much sharper than in France where fertility didn't decline as much
- the moderate rebound of German births in the 1980s due to the fact that the numerous women born during the German baby-boom reached child-bearing age
- the catastrophic collapse of the German birth rate since 1990
- the historical inversion between the German and French generations from 1999 on
