According to a study, the proportion of children and young adults at risk of poverty in Bavaria is the lowest in Germany. For children under the age of 18, their share was 13.4 percent in 2021, according to an analysis by the Bertelsmann Foundation published on Thursday. Of young adults aged 18 to 25, 18.1 percent were at risk of poverty.
Nationwide, the proportion of children (20.8 percent) and young adults (25.5 percent) at risk of poverty was significantly higher. Bringing up the rear is Bremen, where the poverty rate for children and young adults was more than 40 percent.
In Bavaria, as well as in a nationwide comparison, it was shown that boys and girls are particularly affected by single parents and in families with three or more children. According to the authors of the study, the current crises and price increases are exacerbating the problem. Poverty means lack, renunciation, shame and worse future prospects. Children and young people in families with an income below 60 percent of the median household income in Germany are considered at risk of poverty.
The authors of the study also looked at the receipt of SGB II benefits on the basis of data from the Federal Employment Agency. In the summer of 2022, around 160,000 young people under the age of 18 among the children and young people in Bavaria at risk of poverty received basic security according to Social Security Code (SGB) II – a Bavaria-wide rate of 7.3 percent. Among young adults up to and including the age of 24, it was “only” around 30,400 people – a rate of 3.1 percent. According to the foundation, however, other support such as BAföG, housing benefit or training grants are not taken into account here.
The local range in receipt of SGB II was between 2.7 percent in Roth and 20.8 percent in Hof for under-18s. The values in Schweinfurt, Aschaffenburg and Coburg were also well above the national average.
