PD Dr. Wolfgang Weiß talks about the problem of the expected shortage of women in rural regions

Boys, the girls are getting scarce - Demographic problems in the 3rd millennium

"Demographic change" is now a universal keyword for almost everything. Politicians use it to justify the shortage of skilled workers and the lack of soldiers. And then there's the issue of pensions ...
Demographic change" is taking place everywhere in Europe. In Germany, so few children have been born for decades that the generation of children is around a third smaller than that of their parents. At the same time, life expectancy is steadily increasing - by around three months every year for the past 160 years.
This is changing society in many areas: Housing, children's education, nursing and care, and not just in old age. This is the case everywhere, but it varies from region to region. Rural areas are experiencing particularly rapid change. In addition to demographic change, there is also emigration. Young, well-educated women are particularly volatile...
Is this a catastrophe? What does it mean for our everyday lives? Can anything be done about it? Yes, against what - if all this is perhaps just an expression of our prosperity, isn't it?

Priv.-Doz. Dr. Wolfgang Weiß has been investigating questions of demography and population geography for almost half a century.
After hundreds of discussions in science and politics, his most important finding is that the wrong questions are usually being asked!