GfK Demographics Germany 2014

Bruchsal, Germany, March 12, 2015 – Germany's socio-demographic profile varies significantly on a region by region basis. This is the finding of the study "GfK Demographics Germany 2014". GfK annually calculates the regional distribution of family types, age ranges, income brackets and accommodation types. Due to newly available data, the current study reveals a higher nationwide proportion of households with children as well as a smaller share of single-person households than in previous years.

The share of single-person householdsin Germany is 37.2 percent according to the study "GfK Demographics 2014". This is approximately 2.8 percent less than the figure reported in the previous year's study. By contrast, the share of Germany's households with children is 32.8 percent, which exceeds the share of multiple-person households without children (30 percent).

In calculating the regional distribution of the data for 2014, GfK integrated the latest results of the nationwide 2011 census, which were released in April of last year by Germany's Federal Bureau of Statistics. This new data source is the primary cause of the shift in the distributions.

The share of family types has changed at both the nationwide and regional levels. This is also true of the districts with the highest proportion of single-person households. As in previous years, Regensburg urban district significantly outpaces Germany's other districts with a 53.6 percent share of single-person households. This equates to 1.4 times the national average. But for the first time, the urban districts of Würzburg and Leipzig oust Berlin from its longstanding leading position to fourth place. The rural district of Cloppenburg has the nation's lowest share of single-person households at 22.4 percent.

Top 10 districts according to share of single-person households

source: GfK Demographics Germany 2014 UD = urban district; RD = rural district

Regions with high numbers of households with children also often have significantly fewer single-person households than the average, and vice versa. Single-person households are most concentrated in Germany's large cities and university cities, while the share of households with children is especially high in rural regions. According to the study, the highest share of families with children in 2014 was in the rural district of Cloppenburg, with almost 50 percent.