nd literacy in Germany is a high 99 percent. With one of the highest per capita income rates in the world (at $25,000 in 1996), Germany is largely a middle class society, although there are pockets of extreme wealth. Germany has a strong social welfare system which offers national health care and unemployment compensation ("Background Notes," 1998, p.ß2).
Although the nation boasts a life expectancy rate which is consistent with other developed countries (79 years for women in 1996 and 73 years for men in the same year) ("Background Notes," 1998, p. 1), there have been some disturbing trends in the birth and death rates since reunification. Taken as a whole, former communist countries have seen their birth rates fall and their death rates increase; this trend has been particularly noticeable among teenagers and young adults. However, the fact that the trend includes the former East Germany has surprised some researchers given the input of resources from West Germany. The birth rate in East Germany in 1992 was 55 percent lower than in 1989 and it showed signs of continued decline. During the first five months of 1993, eastern Germany had fewer than 5.1 births per 1,000 people, which was 60 percent fewer than during the same period of 1989. This rate was also less than half the already low rate in western Germany ("Living," 1994, p. 54).
The decline in fertility has been matched by an increase in mortality among nearly every age group except for the very young and the very old. Death rates for women between 25 and 45 rose nearly 20 percent between 1989 and 1991; for men of the same age, it increased by nearly 30 percent. Girls aged 10 to 14 saw an increase in mortality of nearly 70 percen
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