Germany’s “demographic storm” will see nursing care costs rise to €41.6bn by 2060

With one of the lowest birth rates in the world, Germany was not prepared to cope with the massive demands that its health system will face during the next 50 years from a rapidly aging population, concludes a new study.

The first wave of Germany’s baby boom generation, generally considered those born between 1955 and 1967, will reach retirement in 2020, says the study, from the Fritz Beske Institute of Health System Research in Kiel.1 From that point on, the demands on the health system will rapidly accelerate, reaching a peak in 2040. But high demands on the system …