Almost half of Germany's residents live as dependents
As "Russkaya Germaniya" notes, 22% of the country's population were pensioners, and another 24% were unemployed family members receiving support from workers (housewives, children, etc.). 7% receive social assistance (this category includes not only unemployment benefits and Hartz IV but also student grants and child care benefits). Approximately one in a hundred (less than one percent) are rentiers, living off their own assets—this could be income from capital, personal savings, or money from renting out property.
It is noteworthy that over the past two decades, the share of those living by their own labor has increased: in 2000, only 41% of the country's population had earned income as their main source of income. About 20 years ago, the share of dependent family members in Germany was 30%. The statistical office considers increased female employment to be the main reason for the growth in the share of the working population living on income from work.
The demographic structure of Germany's population means that significantly more people in the east of the country live on pensions—27% in the former GDR states versus 21% of pensioners in the west. The highest share of those living on earned income (as a percentage of the federal state's population) is in Hamburg: here, almost every second person (49.5%) lives on their own labor, as in Bavaria (49.4%). This state also has the fewest social benefit recipients (3.7%), while in Hamburg they are almost two and a half times more (8.8%).
In Bremen, the share of the population dependent on state assistance is the highest among all 16 federal states—every eighth person (12.9%) receives benefits. In Berlin, the share of those who cannot support themselves is also in double digits—10.6% of the capital's population. Not counting city-states, among the western states, the share of "social welfare recipients" is highest in North Rhine-Westphalia (8.2% of the population), and among the eastern states, in Saxony-Anhalt (9.2%).
The lowest share of social benefit recipients among the new states is in Thuringia (6.7% of the population); among the old states, following Bavaria, is Baden-Württemberg, where no more than 4.5% of residents depend on state assistance.