230 new MPs: The Bundestag is becoming more male, older and cheaper

The newly elected Bundestag is less female than the previous one. The Left Party has a particularly high number of young MPs, while the AfD has a particularly high number of older MPs. An overview of the demographic peculiarities of the 21st German Bundestag.

The Bundestag is becoming more male: the proportion of women in the new Bundestag is almost a third. Of the 630 Bundestag members, 204 are female, which corresponds to 31.2 percent. In the election period that has just ended, the proportion of women was just over 35 percent. The decline is largely due to the strengthening of the CDU/CSU and AfD, which have particularly low proportions of women. The Greens have the highest proportion of women in their ranks at 61.2 percent, followed by the Left with 56.2 percent. In the SPD, the proportion is 41.7 percent. In the CDU/CSU, the proportion of women is only 23.1 percent. It is lowest in the AfD with just 11.8 percent.

The Left Party has the oldest member and the youngest member of parliament: The Left Party politician Gregor Gysi will open the inaugural session of the new Bundestag as oldest member of parliament - he has almost 31 years of service as a member of parliament. Gysi's faction also has the youngest member of parliament: The Left Party's Luke Hoß is only 23 years old. Six of the ten youngest members of parliament in the new Bundestag come from the Left Party alone. Two come from the AfD, one from the Greens and one from the CDU.

The AfD has the oldest elected representatives: seven AfD politicians are among the ten oldest MPs, including the oldest MP, Alexander Gauland, who is 84 years old. The list of the oldest also includes the presumed next Chancellor, Friedrich Merz from the CDU, in tenth place at the age of 69. The Green Party politician Claudia Roth, who also made it into the top ten, also made it into the Bundestag again.

The Bundestag is getting a little older: According to its own publication, the 20th Bundestag started with an average age of 47.3 years, the 21st Bundestag is a little older - with an average age of 48.0 years, according to an analysis by ntv.de. 33 MPs are younger than 30 years, while 101 are older than 60 years. The oldest faction is the AfD with currently 51.5 years, followed by the Union parties CSU (49.2) and CDU (48.3), with the SPD (48.6) in between. The Greens (43.2) and the Left (43.0) MPs are significantly younger.

333 MPs are out, 230 are new: 333 MPs are leaving the current Bundestag, including all 90 FDP MPs and 98 from the SPD. 400 MPs were re-elected, with the largest positions being held by the CDU/CSU with 146 and the SPD with 109 MPs. 230 MPs were newly elected - 92 from the AfD alone, 62 from the CDU/CSU and 51 from the Left.

In future, the plenary will have 103 fewer seats: Due to the electoral reform passed by the traffic light coalition, the parliament will shrink from 733 to 630 members. There will no longer be any overhang or compensatory mandates. One consequence of the reform is that 23 candidates who were ahead in the first votes in their constituencies will not receive a mandate in the Bundestag.

The costs for the Bundestag are likely to fall significantly: According to calculations by the German Economic Institute (IW), reducing the size of the Bundestag could save a three-digit million amount annually. There is potential for savings, especially in the salaries of MPs. MPs' allowances, cash payments to the parliamentary groups and costs for travel, constituency offices and second homes in Berlin also play a significant role.