East German federal states: Emigration of young people from East Germany continues

The exodus of young people from the eastern German states continued last year. In 2023, more 18- to 29-year-olds moved from there to West German federal states than vice versa. Specifically, the net number was 7,100, as the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden announced. Berlin was not taken into account in the calculations.

“This means that East Germany’s continuous loss of migration compared to the West in this age group, which has existed since 1991, will continue in 2023,” the report said. This is probably also due to the fact that people leave eastern German states to study or for vocational training. According to the data, a total of 727,000 net 18- to 29-year-olds have emigrated from eastern German states since 1991.

Differences between the federal states

However, the differences between the federal states are also striking: “While Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saxony have recorded a positive internal migration balance in recent years, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt have been consistently affected by net migration to the West German states since 1991.” , it said.

Across all age groups, immigration and emigration between East and West have been significantly more balanced over the past ten years. According to the Federal Statistical Office, last year for the first time since 2016 more people migrated from East German to West German states than vice versa. However, this migration loss was comparatively small at a total of 3,000 people.

According to the report, more than 1.2 million more people have migrated from the East to the West since reunification than vice versa. The majority of this goes back to the first ten years since reunification. By the year 2000, more than 600,000 left the East German federal states for West Germany. In the 2010s the development slowed down until in 2017 there was a slightly positive internal migration balance in the eastern German states as a whole for the first time. In 2023, however, the trend was reversed again: the loss of migration to the west was comparatively low at around 3,000 people.

Population in the East is aging faster

Decades of development also contribute to a lower proportion of people of working age in the East. According to the 2022 census, 57.5 percent of the population in the eastern German states – excluding Berlin – were between 18 and 64 years old. In the West German states, however, the proportion was 61.6 percent. The fewest people of working age were in Saxony at around 57 percent, and the most were in Berlin at around 64 percent. In addition, the ten districts with the lowest proportion of 18 to 64 year olds are all in the east.

The average age of the population is increasing nationwide, but development is progressing faster in the east. The proportion of seniors (65 years and older) rose from 15 to 22 percent across the country between 1990 and 2022. In 1990, however, the population in the East was even younger than in the West: the proportion of people under 20 was 25 percent in the East and 21 percent in the West (both excluding Berlin), while those aged 65 and over were 14 percent in the East and 14 percent in the West 15 percent of the population. The trend has now reversed: While the proportion of people under 20 was 18 percent in 2022, lower than in the West (19 percent), the proportion of people over 65 was 27 percent, higher than in the West (21 percent).