Poverty in Germany

During the last decades, the number of people living in poverty in Germany has been increasing. Children are more likely to be poor than adults. There has been a strong increase in the number of poor children. In 1965, only one in 75 children lived on welfare, in 2007 one in 6 did.

Poverty rates differ by states. While in 2005 in states like Bavaria, only 6.6% of children and 3.9% of all citizens were impoverished, in Berlin, 15.2% of the inhabitants and 30.7% of the children received welfare payments.

The German Kinderhilfswerk, an organization caring for children in need has demanded the government to do something about the poverty problem.

As of 2015, poverty in Germany was at its highest since the German reunification (1990). Some 12.5 million Germans are now classified as poor.