Almost never before have so few couples married in Germany as in 2021, but more children were born in the second year of Corona than since 1997.
This is the result of preliminary figures from the Federal Statistical Office, which were published in Wiesbaden on Thursday.
"The number of marriages in Germany fell to a new historic low in 2021," the statisticians reported.
Only 357,800 couples got married in the past year.
That was another 4.2 percent less than in 2020. In the first year of Corona, the number had already fallen by 10.3 percent.
There were fewer marriages only during the First World War in the years 1915 to 1918; no data are available for the war years 1944 and 1945.
In contrast to marriages, the number of births increased.
According to preliminary information, around 795,500 children were born in Germany in 2021.
According to the office, the number of births rose by two percent compared to the average for the years 2018 to 2020.
What was striking for the statisticians: "Across Germany, an increase in the births of third children could be observed."