Self-employment and demographic change

Population development in Germany is characterised by low birth rates and sinking mortality. In future there will be fewer people in Germany, who will, on average, be far older than today. This article analyses how these demographic changes can affect the potential of self-employment. It estimates the supply-side development of self-employment in Germany up to 2050. If one only takes the demographic changes of the population for the development of self-employment into account, the potential of self-employment will be regressive. In 2003 there were ca 1.8 million self-employed persons with employees; in 2050 this number will have declined to 1.3, or a drop of 28.7%. But only looking at demographic change does not suffice to provide a comprehensive picture of tomorrow's self-employment.