Germany: number of births decline by 3 percent

Germany: number of births decline by 3 percent

Some 686,000 births were registered last year - 20,000, or 2.8 percent, fewer than the previous year, the Federal Statistics Office said.

They were outpaced by the number of deaths, which rose by 12,000 to 830,000.

The statistics office said that the number of births has been falling since 1991, with a slight recovery in 1996 and 1997. However, it noted that 2004 saw only a moderate decline of about 1,000 births, the AP reports.