Germany records lowest annual adoption figures since 1990

The Federal Statistical Office reported that 3,517 children were adopted in Germany in 2025, a 4 % decline from the previous year and the lowest number since the country's reunification in 1990. The drop is linked to a continued fall in "classic" non‑relative adoptions. Only 56 children (1.6 %) were adopted from abroad, mainly from Thailand, South Africa, Burkina Faso and Sri Lanka.

More than two‑thirds of the adopted children (74 %) had been raised by a biological parent and a stepparent before adoption. Over a quarter were infants under one year old and 31 % were between one and two years old; the average age at adoption was 5.1 years. Step‑parent adoptions now account for 75 % of all adoptions, the highest share on record. Within this group, stepmother adoptions by same‑sex female couples rose sharply, representing 36 % of all adoptions; 80 % of the 1,586 stepmother adoptions involved lesbian couples.

Statisticians cite changing family structures, expanded state family benefits, stricter child‑protection rules and advances in reproductive medicine as possible reasons for the overall decline in traditional adoptions.