Eastern Germany Graying Faster Than West

A study on demographic development by 2050 published by the German Institute for Economic Research on Wednesday in Berlin says that states in former communist eastern Germany will in future be home to many more older people as compared to western Germany. The study expects the old age ratio -- the relation of the number of people aged 65 and above to the number aged 20 to 64 -- to rise in eastern Germany to 62 percent from a current 28 percent and in western Germany to 54 percent from a similar 28 percent. The DIW made it clear that the current trend of a rapidly ageing population in Germany was practically unstoppable. The study emphasized the importance of expected immigration from the new eastern European EU members for Germany's population development.