Overview
- Using housing‑adjusted incomes, the Paritätische counts 22.3% of the population—about 18.4 million people—as poor, roughly 5.4 million more than conventional measures.
- Official EVS 2023 figures show households with under €1,300 net income spend about 64% of consumption on housing and food, versus 52% across all households.
- Young adults, people 65 and older, single parents, single households and large families are most affected, with regional hotspots including Bremen at 33.4% and Berlin at 24.6%.
- Berlin’s new social report finds about one in five households overburdened by rent, underscoring the role of high housing costs in the city’s concentrated poverty.
- Advocates push tenant protections and more social housing as some states extend rent controls, while industry groups urge faster building; about 1.2 million households receive Wohngeld, which is calculated using local rent bands rather than apartment size.