People in benefit communities Germany 2025| Statista

Around 5.69 million people in Germany were living in benefit communities as defined by the German Social Code (SGB) II in March 2025. This was mostly unchanged compared to the previous month.

Monthly number of people in benefit communities** in Germany from March 2024 to March 2025 (in millions)

Characteristic	Number of persons in benefit communities in millions
Mar '24	5.81
Apr '24	5.81
May '24	5.81
Jun '24	5.79
Jul '24	5.78
Aug '24	5.77
Sep '24	5.74
Oct '24	5.72
Nov '24	5.69
Dec '24	5.69
Jan '25*	5.7
Feb '25*	5.72
Mar '25*	5.69

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Release date

March 2025

More information

Region

Germany

Survey time period

March 2024 to March 2025

Supplementary notes

* Figures are preliminary.

** 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 income. Children's income includes, for example, child benefit or maintenance payments.

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