Germany may be the European Union’s richest country, but it is also home to 5.14 million people who cannot afford a nutritious meal every other day. This grim fact was revealed by Germany’s Federal Statistics Office, which also show that one in three Germans would struggle to pay unexpected expenses.
The findings emerged in response to a parliamentary inquiry from the Left party. The Federal Statistics Office also reported that almost a third of unemployed persons in Germany are unable to regularly eat a nutritious meal.
As reported by Deutsche Welle (DW), Germany’s international broadcaster, the data is based on respondents’ self-assessments in a 2017 EU survey on income, social inclusion and living conditions.
“Poverty is not a marginal phenomenon in Germany, but runs throughout the population,” Left party social policy spokesperson Sabine Zimmermann told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung newspaper, which first reported the figures.
According to the findings, around a third of Germans over the age of 16 (roughly 21 million, or 30.4%) are not in the position to afford an unexpected expense of €1,000, such as paying for car repairs or a new washing machine.
The percentage of unemployed Germans who couldn’t pay an unexpected cost of that amount was 80%.
