One in seven children in Germany at risk of poverty

One in seven children in Germany were at risk of poverty last year, official figures showed on Monday.

According to the Federal Statistical Office, 2.2 million children and young people under the age of 18, accounting for 15.2 percent of the age group, were at risk of poverty in 2024.

While the figure rose from 14% in the previous year, Germany remains better off that the European average of 19.3 percent.

Compared to the total population (15.5 percent), children and young people are slightly less likely to be at risk of poverty.

The statistical term covers people who have less than 60 percent of the median “net equivalent income.”

This is a weighted per capita income that also takes into account factors such as household size.

In 2024, the threshold for a single person was €1,381 ($1,602) per month.

A single-parent household with a child under the age of 14 is considered at risk if it has a net income of less than €1,795 per month.

Households with two adults and two children under the age of 14 were at risk of poverty if their net income was below €2,900.

Statisticians identified low educational attainment among parents as a risk factor for low income and poverty.

In addition, those under 18 who had immigrated to Germany themselves or whose parents had both immigrated were around four times more likely to be at risk of poverty (31.9%) than their peers without a migration background (7.7%).

Cannabis consumption continues to rise in Germany, survey finds

Cannabis consumption in Germany has continued to increase, according to newly published survey data.

Data from the 2024 Epidemiological Survey of Substance Abuse (ESA), published in the journal Deutsches Ärzteblatt International on Friday, show that 9.8 percent of respondents reported using cannabis in the past 12 months. The rate stood at 4.5 percent in 2012 and had risen to 8.8 percent by 2021.

The ESA survey is conducted every three years and tracks drug-use patterns across Germany. For the 2024 edition, 7,534 people aged 18 to 64 were interviewed between August and December.