Berlin, Nov. 7 – Despite significant growth in Germany's overall wealth, inequality and poverty risks have remained stubbornly high, according to the 2024 Social Report published Wednesday. 

The report, a joint effort by the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB), the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), and the Federal Institute for Population Research, highlights stark disparities in wealth distribution, particularly between East and West Germany.

As of 2021, Germany’s top 10 percent of households held 56 percent of the nation’s wealth, placing Germany among Europe’s most unequal countries. 

The divide is especially pronounced regionally: while households in the West hold an average wealth of 359,800 euros, East German households average only 150,900 euros, with this gap showing minimal change over the last decade.

The poverty risk is especially high for older populations in eastern Germany, where nearly one in four people aged 60 to 79 faces poverty risks. 

According to WZB expert Philip Wotschack, lower wages and stagnant property values in the East are central to this imbalance, with the latter further impacted by regional population decline.