Federal Statistical Office: Almost every sixth person is at risk of poverty

Around 13 million people in Germany were at risk of slipping into poverty last year. As the Federal Statistical Office also announced, single parents and those living alone are particularly affected.

The number of people at risk of poverty in Germany fell only minimally in 2021. According to the Federal Statistical Office, around 13 million people were at risk of poverty. This corresponds to 15.8 percent of the population and thus about every sixth citizen living in Germany. In 2020 it was 16.1 percent with 13.2 million people.

According to the EU definition, a person is considered at risk of poverty if they have less than 60 percent of the median income of the total population. In 2021, this threshold was 15,009 euros net per year for a person living alone in Germany, and 31,520 euros net for two adults with two children under the age of 14.

Many single parents and those living alone are affected

Broken down by household type, significantly more people from single-parent households and those living alone are at risk of poverty than the national average. In 2021, more than a quarter of people from single-parent households (26.6 percent) were at risk of poverty. For those living alone it was 26.8 percent.

For people in households with two adults and one child (9.0 percent) or with two children (11.4 percent) and in households with two adults without a child (11.5 percent), the at-risk-of-poverty rate in 2021 was below the national average.

In contrast, people in households of two adults with three or more children had a poverty risk rate of 23.6 percent, which was well above the national average.

Differentiated according to the predominant employment status of people aged 18 and over, last year almost every second person in the group of the unemployed was at risk of poverty, at 47.0 percent. In contrast, the proportion of those who were mainly employed was only 8.6 percent.

For retired people, the at-risk-of-poverty rate was 19.3 percent. For women aged 65 and over, the risk of poverty was significantly higher in 2021 at 21.0 percent than for men in the same age group at 17.4 percent. The Federal Office explained that the lower old-age income of women compared to men can be attributed, for example, to interrupted employment biographies and thus lower pension entitlements.

Overall, 16.5 percent of women and 15.1 percent of men were at risk of poverty in 2021.