Poverty in Germany is increasing. Apparently the extent is so great that important factors such as sometimes massive price increases were no longer taken into account when determining the at-risk-of-poverty rate. It appears to be much worse than portrayed.
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Increasing child poverty in Germany
The EU’s most populous, economically strongest and one of the world’s most productive countries has more than a fifth of its children and young people living in poverty. Child poverty in Germany recently rose to 21.8 percent, according to the General Parity Association in its report published on Tuesday (Source). A newly marked peak.
Rise in “risk of poverty” stopped?
The general poverty rate in 2022 was 16.8 percent or 14.2 million people affected. Someone who has an income of less than 60 percent of the median income is considered poor, or in official parlance, “at risk of poverty”. According to the welfare association, the “at-risk-of-poverty rate” was 0.1 percentage points lower in 2022 than in 2021. This broke the chain of 16-year increases.
In addition to families with large children, single parents and people without completed vocational training are particularly affected by poverty with an average rate of 30 percent. What is striking is the finding that the proportion of people affected by poverty who are not employed is “only” 6 percent. Around a third of the impoverished people in Germany are employed and around a third of the people affected are of retirement age.
South-north gradient
According to the evaluation, there is a south-north divide in the distribution of poverty in Germany. While the poverty rate is lowest in the south, i.e. Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, Bremen has the highest proportion of people in poverty (poverty rate 29%). The “poverty hotspots” include the Ruhr area in particular (22%) with a relatively high population density. Other areas with a relatively low poverty rate, even in northern regions, include Brandenburg with the Berlin catchment area. Schleswig-Holstein, Berlin, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony and Lower Saxony are in the middle range when it comes to poverty rates.
Poverty thresholds in 2022
The so-called income median is not a static size. In 2022, the poverty threshold for a single person was a monthly income of 1,186 euros per month. For a family with two children under the age of 14, the poverty threshold was 2,490 euros per month. Single parents with two children were considered “at risk of poverty” in 2022 if their income was 1,187 euros per month or less.
Price explosions not even recorded
The reasons for the high poverty rate in one of the “richest countries” in the world are obvious. What is interesting at this point is that the extremely increased prices for electricity, gas, heating and especially food are not taken into account when determining the poverty rate. Based on this, the decline of 0.1 percentage points compared to the previous year could also be misleading. Energy prices shot up by a good 30 percent and food prices by around 20 percent.
The federal government’s will to help the poor and poorest in the country was extremely weak in 2022. According to the parity, the federal government propagated around 29 billion euros in relief money for the severely affected households. However, only around 2 billion euros have arrived, i.e. significantly less than 10 percent.
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