Report: Nearly 38% of students in Germany face imminent poverty

By Oliver Towfigh Nia

BERLIN (AA) - Almost 38% of students in Germany were at risk of poverty last year, the Federal Statistical Office reported Wednesday in the southwestern city of Wiesbaden.

The risk of poverty was even higher among students who lived alone or exclusively with fellow students (76.1%).

Based on the statistics, students had to dig deep into their pockets when it came to housing costs: The average proportion of housing costs in the disposable household income for students was 31.6% and thus significantly higher than the housing costs for the entire population (23.3%).

The financial problems among students are also reflected in the fact that 38.5% were already living in households in the past year – and thus before the energy crisis – that were unable to meet unexpected major expenditures from their own financial resources.

In September, the German government presented a third relief package to compensate for the rapidly rising prices which also included one-time payments to students.

Meanwhile, last year, 15.8% of the population in Germany were on the verge of poverty.

Even though Germany is one of the richest nations in the world, signs of growing poverty are becoming increasingly visible across the country. More and more homeless people can be seen sleeping in the streets, mothers forgoing meals in a bid to feed their children, and retirees looking for discarded bottles to trade for the deposit money.

A person in Germany is considered to be at risk of poverty if they have less than 60% of the median income of the entire population. Last year, this threshold for people living alone in Germany was €15,009 ($15,651) net per year ($1,304) net per month).