Overview

• Roughly 30 poverty researchers sent a letter to Destatis president Ruth Brand demanding the agency reinstate MZ-Kern calculations alongside EU-SILC figures.
• In mid-August Destatis dropped the MZ-Kern method and retroactively removed related poverty data for 2020–2023 from its website.
• Under the sole EU-SILC approach the official 2023 poverty rate is 15.5 percent compared with 16.6 percent under the deleted MZ-Kern series.
• Destatis defends the change as necessary for EU-wide comparability and for detailed income-type reporting, including non-employment transfers.
• Critics warn that eliminating a second methodology undermines scientific freedom, reduces reproducibility and obscures regional and demographic insights.