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Poverty in Germany: A total of 14.2 million people affected
Photo: Fernando Gutierrez-Juarez/dpa
The economic situation in German households is increasingly deteriorating. The youngest are also affected by this: according to a report by the Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband, one in five children in Germany suffered from poverty in 2022. With 21.8 percent of all children and young people, a “sad record” has been reached, explained the general manager of the overall association, Ulrich Schneider, at the presentation of the poverty report in Berlin.
A total of 14.2 million people in this country were poor in 2022 - a rate of 16.8 percent. That is 100,000 more people than in 2021 and almost a million more than in the pre-pandemic year 2019, said Schneider. Compared to 2006, the number has increased by 2.7 million. According to the association, it was the year in which the poverty trend began. Single parents and households with three or more children most often lived in poverty.
In its evaluation, the association refers to the microcensus of the Federal Statistical Office. Reliable figures for 2023 will not be available until next year; the data for 2022 are reportedly the most recent in the statistics. There are no signs that there will be a trend reversal in the figures for 2023, explained Schneider.
According to the microcensus, who is considered “poor” is graded according to household types and disposable net income. A single household without children reaches the poverty threshold with a disposable income of less than 1,186 euros per month. Single parents with a child under 14 are considered poor according to the sliding scale if they have less than 1,542 euros available per month.
Women are more often poor than men
According to the report, the group of single parents and households with three or more children in particular are “low-income”. In addition, there are the unemployed, people with low educational qualifications and those with a migrant background who are disproportionately affected. At 17.8 percent, women had a higher poverty rate than men.
Association manager Schneider emphasized that it is a fallacy to think that only those who do not have a job have little to live on. The statistics show that more than a quarter of the 14.2 million people affected are employed, and another quarter are pensioners.
The distribution of poverty within Germany is also remarkable, says Schneider. Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Brandenburg have the lowest poverty rates. The highest, each with 19 percent and more, are Saarland, Saxony-Anhalt, Hamburg and North Rhine-Westphalia. According to the data, Bremen is at the absolute bottom with a rate of 29.1 percent.
eru/dpa