Babies in the Rar region: First daycare centers close due to a decline in birth!

Babies in the Rar region: First daycare centers close due to a decline in birth!

In Northwest Mecklenburg, the alarm bells beat: the birth rate drops dramatically and the effects on childcare are unmistakable. The daycare center in Damshagen terminated its contract with the municipality at the end of the year. The sponsor, the youth welfare center Rehna, justifies this step with an increasingly low capacity utilization, which is simply no longer financed. The managing director of the JHZ, Holger Glatz, explains that only two of 15 crèche places are occupied. It doesn't look better in the kindergarten area: only 26 children are looked after at 36 places available. A trend has settled here that cannot be ignored: the decline in the birth rate in the region.

Currently only 6949 children under the age of seven live in the district, which means a decline of almost 25 percent since 2010. These alarming numbers are no coincidence. Almost 50 births are registered in Grevesmühlen annually - as a reminder: In the 1990s there were over 100. The population of Grevesmühlen has dropped from around 12,000 to around 10,500, and above all by pulling young families away. However, the closure of the daycare center in Damshagen is only the beginning; From 2026 there will only be ten facilities in the district.

growing challenges due to a decline in birth

The decline in birth rates is not only reflected in Northwest Mecklenburg. Nordkurier reports of a general trend in Germany in which the birth rate in 2024 has fallen to the lowest level since 2013. In the east of the country, the situation looks particularly critical, with a decline of 9.2 percent. There are already numerous unused daycare places in Saxony, while in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania by further dismissals in daycare centers are spoken of because of the declining number of children.

The daycare centers in the east are particularly affected, where many facilities are faced with oversupply in places. The Saxon state parliament recently decided to defuse the situation. The maintenance of daycare centers is a great financial burden for the municipalities. Statistical surveys show that despite a legally defined legal right to a kindergarten place, an increase in the number of children has not been recorded since 2006. The effects are serious and the closure of facilities threatens to become normal.

an outlook on the future

The daycare center in Damshagen is currently looking for a new carrier. In the best case, the municipality could take over the sponsorship - but this seems extremely unlikely. There are currently 113 daycare centers in the district; Without Damshagen, this number dropped to 112. Five years ago, there were 110 institutions, a development that is due to the dramatic decline in birth rates. The number of child minders in Northwest Mecklenburg also reduced from 151 in 2015 to only 65.

The demographic changes make it necessary for the municipalities to find creative solutions to ensure childcare in the future. A look into the next few years leaves room for questions: How can the impending lack of childcare places be averted? What steps have to be taken to keep young families? It will be shown whether there will be answers soon, but it is obvious: hand is urgently needed if we don't want to lose sight of the future of our children.