Bremen / Hanover (dpa / lni) – According to a report by the Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband, Bremen is far behind in terms of the poverty rate and brings up the rear among the federal states. While in Bavaria only 11.6 percent of people lived in poverty last year, the rate in Bremen was 28.4 percent, as the association’s poverty report 2021 presented on Thursday shows. A year earlier, the rate in Bremen was 24.9 percent.
Although the figures for 2019 and 2020 are only comparable to a limited extent for methodological reasons, a strong negative development for Bremen is clear, said Wolfgang Luz, Chairman of the Paritätischer Bremen. Bremen’s rate is almost eight percentage points above the high rates in the federal states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saxony-Anhalt.
This has nothing to do with even approximately the same living conditions, said Ulrich Schneider, managing director of the Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband. “Germany is not only socially but also regionally a deeply divided country – and the rifts are getting deeper.” Overall, the paritätischer diagnosed a growing “prosperity gap” between southern Germany and the rest of the republic.
In Lower Saxony, the poverty rate rose to 17.6 percent last year – after 17.1 percent in the pre-Corona year 2019. “That is 40,000 more people than a year ago. This increase corresponds to the population of an entire small town – children, families, old people, ”said Rainer Flinks, chairman of the Lower Saxony parity. Society should not accept this.
Nationwide, around 13.4 million people lived below the poverty line last year – this corresponds to a rate of 16.1 percent; in 2019 the rate was 15.9 percent. People are considered poor if they have less than 60 percent of the median income.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 211216-99-408534 / 2
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