The fertility rate in recent years has been about 1.4 live births per woman, which is below the replacement level. Even if the population was to remain constant, Germany's relative position in the world would continue to decline, given the higher birth rates in most other countries. According to the most recent official statistics, 7.37 million foreigners and 300,000 asylum seekers live in the country, of whom more than two million are from Turkey. Foreigners now make up nine percent of the total population. These figures do not include illegal aliens, of whom there were an estimated 1.8 million in 1997.
Foreigners tend to be concentrated in the larger cities.
In Stuttgart the figure is 24 percent, and in Munich it is 23 percent. The percentage of foreigners is especially high among the youth. In the largest city, Berlin, the percentage of foreigners under 18 years old is estimated to grow to 52 percent by the year 2015. Of all the major industrial countries, Germany has become the most important land of immigration. Germany can no longer choose whether it wishes to be an immigration country or not, because the birth deficit will greatly increase due to the dramatically falling numbers of women in their child-bearing years.