Large German families are becoming a thing of the past
"From 351,000 in 1995, this figure dropped to 209,000 in 2015," says Destatis President Dieter Sarreiter. "That is a decrease of a full 40.5%. Why this is happening is not a question for our office. Importantly, the report includes data only on those families who run a common household, that is, share a budget. The average age of the older generation in such families is 67. At the same time, only 6% of this generation receive care benefits, while 94% not only support themselves but also help younger generations in everyday life."
Running a common household with a shared budget is typical for families consisting of two generations – parents and their unmarried children, including minors. According to Destatis, such families account for 26.9% of all households in Germany. But this group has also decreased significantly over the past 20 years, from 12.8 million in 1995 to 11.0 million in 2015 (a decline of 13.9%). Three-quarters of women in these families either do not work at all (29.7%) or work part-time (45.9%). Of these, 44.9% cited the need to care for children as the main reason for reduced labor activity.
And another curious finding from statisticians is cited by "Russkaya Germania": today, young men leave their parents' home later than their female peers. 52% of all 23-year-old single men live with their parents, as do 12% of thirty-year-olds and 4% of forty-year-olds. Among women, the figures are noticeably lower: 35%, 5%, and 1%, respectively.
71.8% of all German households are single-generation families (childless couples). Another 7% are families consisting of middle-aged people and their parents (of these, 62.8% live with only one parent). In absolute numbers, that is 266,000 households. Twenty years ago, this figure was 324,000 (a decline of 17.9%).
And only 0.5% are households consisting of three or more generations: parents with minor children, grandparents, and (in very rare cases, not even reaching statistical significance) great-grandparents. Interestingly, in such households, the proportion of non-working women is higher than in households consisting of parents with children (37.2% vs. 29.7%). At the same time, the proportion of women working full-time is somewhat higher (28.4% vs. 24.4%).
Leading Destatis specialist Tim Hochgürtel believes: "For parents, parting with their children is always difficult, well, or not always easy. But usually, if children leave their parents, they stay territorially close to their parental home, so that it can be reached in an hour or a little more."