Almost every third birth in a German hospital is a Caesarean section.
According to the Federal Statistical Office, around 220,700 women gave birth in this way in 2020.
The caesarean section rate nationwide was 29.7 percent, as the office announced on Tuesday.
"Over the last 30 years, the proportion of these surgical interventions has almost doubled," the statisticians reported.
In 1991, only 15.3 percent of women gave birth by surgery.
From 2019 to 2020, the caesarean rate remained almost the same.
However, there are major regional differences: the proportion was highest in Schleswig-Holstein (33.3 percent), while Berlin had the lowest rate (25.6 percent).
There are also differences in an international comparison.
Comparable data from the OECD for 26 countries are available up to 2019.
According to this, there were 54 caesarean sections for every 100 live births in Turkey, 39 in Poland and 38 in Hungary. The number was comparatively low in Israel (15), Norway and Iceland (16 each).
With 30 Caesarean sections per 100 live births, Germany was in the top third.