(Bloomberg) -- Move over Japan. Germany now has the world’slowest birthrate, and its economy is poised to suffer as aresult.

Germany recorded about 8.3 births per 1,000 citizens in the fiveyears through 2013, less than Japan’s 8.4 and the U.K.’s 12.7,according to a study released on Friday by consultants BDO AG andthe Hamburg Institute for International Economics.

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While other western nations are also experiencing decliningbirthrates, nowhere has the change been as drastic as in thecountry that carries the crown of Europe’s economic powerhouse. Thetally has shrunk by half in the past 50 years, according to thefindings.

“This results in significantly negative consequences forGermany’s economic attractiveness and performance in the globalcompetitive landscape,” Henning Voepel, the head of the Hamburginstitute, said in a statement.

Impacts may include rising non-wage labor costs and an increasedurgency to attract skilled workers from abroad, BDO said.

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Chancellor Angela Merkel has singled out Germany’sageing population as one of thebiggest challenges the country faces in the decades to come.

The number of people of working age for every pensioner mayshrink to two by 2033 from four in January 2013, projections byEurostat, which provides statistical information for European Unioninstitutions, show.

Friday’s study underlines the challenges western nations face incompeting with rapidly growing emerging economies in Asia and otherparts of the world.

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Ranked according to their attractiveness to entrepreneurs,Switzerland came top among 174 countries, followed by Singapore andHong Kong. Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, ranked 11th, and theU.S. was 14th, according to the report.

The researchers looked at variables including politicalstability, education, health, population trends, business and workfreedom, regulatory quality, inflation to arrive at theirfindings.

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