Children in benefit communities in Germany

Around 30 percent of children in Bremen were living in households below the poverty line in December 2023. This made Bremen the federal state with the highest share of children in households dependent on social benefits. In contrast, Bavaria had the lowest share of child poverty, at just seven percent living in benefit communities.

Share of children under the age of 18 living in benefit communities** in Germany in 2023, by federal state

Characteristic	Share of children living in poverty out of all children*
Bremen	30.1%
Berlin	23.9%
Hamburg	20%
Saarland	18.4%
North Rhine-Westphalia	17.7%
Saxony-Anhalt	16.2%
East Germany	15.4%
Schleswig-Holstein	14%
Lower Saxony	13.8%
Hesse	13.7%
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania	13.6%
Germany	13.4%
West Germany	13%
Thuringia	12%
Saxony	11.8%
Rhineland-Palatinate	11.5%
Brandenburg	11.1%
Baden-Wuerttemberg	9%
Bavaria	7%

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Release date

April 2024

More information

Region

Germany

Survey time period

December 2023

Age group

up to 17 years old

Special properties

Children with and without entitlement to benefits

Supplementary notes

* Based on the population under the age of 18 as of December 31, 2022.

** The German term is "Bedarfsgemeinschaften" which is a legal term from German social law, particularly under the Second Book of the Social Code (SGB II), which pertains to basic income support for jobseekers. It refers to a household community where the members are economically dependent on one another and are considered together when determining eligibility and the number of social benefits.

Examples of this are:

Spouses who are not permanently separated
Registered same-sex life partners who are not permanently separated
People in a community of responsibility and commitment (“marriage-like community”).
The benefit community also includes children who live in the household and are younger than 25 years old. Requirement: They are unmarried, able to work and cannot support themselves from their own income. Children's income includes, for example, child benefit or maintenance payments.

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