Friday, December 13, 2002
Berlin becoming a city of singles?
A story released today by the Agence France Presse reports that Germany’s
capital is becoming a city of singles, with more than a quarter of the
population alone.
Some 910,000 Berliners or 26.9 percent of city residents live on their own,
according to the 2001 annual statistics almanac, meaning that about one in
every two homes is a single person household.
The number of unmarried parents is also on the rise with about 42 percent of children born out of wedlock, compared to about 33 percent in 1992.
Berlin couples are increasingly opting not to marry, with 12,903 weddings registered in 2001 compared to 18,000 a decade ago, in line with a trend in cities throughout Europe.
Berlin has 3.38 million inhabitants, some 6,000 more than in the previous year, which marked the first population increase in the capital since 1993.
