Official data released on Wednesday revealed that more than one in five Germans was at risk of poverty or social exclusion last year, indicating the extent of the difficulties facing Europe’s largest economy.
This applies to 17.7 million people in 2023, or 21.2% of the total population, the Federal Statistics Office reported.
Although these numbers have not changed to a large extent compared to 2022, they reveal an important background to the political situation in Germany, where the far-right Alternative for Germany party is competing for first place in the state elections in the relatively poor east of the country in September.
A pledge to increase defense spending in response to the war in Ukraine has prompted Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s unstable coalition to seek budget cuts as households suffer from a sharp rise in inflation, which is now beginning to ease.
The German data are based on the European Union’s definition of poverty, which includes people who meet at least one of the following three criteria: exposure to the risk of poverty, suffering from severe material and social deprivation, or a significant reduction in the proportion of work in the family.
The proportion of Germans at risk of poverty reached 14.3% in 2023, a slight improvement from the 14.8% recorded in 2022.
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