The specter of demographic change is haunting Europe. Declining birth rates and the predicted aging and shrinking of society are often equated in public discourse with an overload of the welfare state or catastrophic economic future scenarios. Christian Rademacher examines the financial and labor market policy effectiveness of local public services through practical external evaluations of family and senior citizen policies at the local level. He demonstrates that, contrary to widely held populationist crisis assumptions, German municipalities have significant leeway in demographically sensitive areas of action. The ability to shape local population developments is greater when political decision-makers can draw on positive experiences from the successful implementation of such municipal interventions.