From 2024 to 2025, this share of the poverty rate increased by 0.6 percentage points to 16.1 percent of the population, according to the poverty report.Image: DPA
According to a new report from the Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband, the poverty rate in Germany is at a new high.
June 2, 2026, 10:26 amJune 2, 2026, 10:26 am
From 2024 to 2025, according to the poverty report, this proportion increased by 0.6 percentage points to 16.1 percent of the population. “13.3 million people live in poverty in this country – if you look at relative income poverty alone,” says the association.
The Federal Statistical Office had already reported these figures in February. Officially, those affected are considered to be at risk of poverty – based on a definition from the European Union. The association now emphasizes that there was a “sad record”. In no previous year have so many people been affected by poverty.
People who have less than 60 percent of the median income are considered to be at risk of poverty, as statisticians call it, or poor, as the welfare association puts it. For people living alone, this limit was most recently at 1,446 euros net per month, and for households with two adults and two children under 14 years old it was 3,036 euros.
“Negative trend reversal”
After declining rates from 2020 to 2023, there was “a negative trend reversal,” emphasizes the association. The differences between the regions are large. The southern states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, with their strong economic structures, have the lowest affected rates, at 12.6 and 13.2 percent respectively.
The highest proportions of those affected are in Bremen (27.5 percent), Saxony-Anhalt (21.3 percent) and the city states of Hamburg (18.9 percent) and Berlin (18.7 percent). Particularly affected in western Germany are regions such as Trier (21.4 percent), Weser-Ems (20.8 percent) and Arnsberg (19.6 percent), and in eastern Germany, for example, Chemnitz (18.2 percent) and Leipzig (17.4 percent).
Poverty trap at the end of your life?
“The end of life threatens to become a poverty trap,” writes the Paritätische Wohlfahrtsverband. The situation for older people is “tense”. According to the figures, almost one in five people aged 65 and over is affected by poverty or is at risk of poverty.
Other groups are also more affected: people living alone (rate of poor or people at risk of poverty: 30.3 percent), single parents (28.9 percent) or people with low educational qualifications (29.1 percent). (sda/dpa)