The key facts

  • The share of poor households rose from 11.9% (1992) to 17.3% (2024)
  • The poverty threshold for a single person is a net income below €15,673 per year
  • WSI warns that the discussed cuts to social spending will increase inequality

Poverty rate has nearly doubled over three decades

The poverty rate in Germany has increased by 45% since 1992, while income inequality is near its highest level in three decades. These figures come from a report by the Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI), published on Thursday — as reported by Anadolu. The share of households living in poverty rose from 11.9% in 1992 to 17.3% in 2024.

How the figures are calculated

The study defines poverty as disposable income below 60% of the national median. For a person living alone, this means an annual net income below €15,673. At the same time, the share of households with very high incomes — those exceeding three times the median — also grew, from 1.1% to 1.9%; for a single person, this category begins above €78,366 per year. The broader group with incomes more than twice the median accounted for 7% of households in 2024, compared with 5.7% in 1992.

Causes and the institute's warnings

The report's authors attributed the rise in inequality in part to the declining effectiveness, over the past decade, of taxes and social transfers in redistributing income, as well as to the growth of part-time employment, which is often linked to a lack of childcare options. WSI Director Bettina Kohlrausch noted that employment alone does not guarantee everyone access to economic growth: “We have observed poverty growing and deepening, and income inequality widening — even during periods of low unemployment,” she said in a statement. According to her, the social spending cuts currently under discussion will lead to a further expansion of inequality.