New: Households

In 2009, 40.2 million households, comprising some 82 million household members, were counted in Germany. Hence, the number of private households has risen by just over 4.9 million since April 1991, while that of household members has increased by just under 1.9 million. The average household size was on the decrease: It dropped from an average of 2.27 persons per household in 1991 to 2.04 persons in 2009.

According to the results of the microcensus, there are hardly any households any more in Germany with three or more generations living under the same roof. In 2009, just less than 1% of the households consisted of parents with children, the latter's grandparents and, in isolated cases, their great-grandparents. Two-generation households where parents lived with their children (including stepchildren, foster children and adoptive children) or their grandchildren accounted for 29% of the households. But their share in the total of households has declined as well ( 9 percentage points compared with 1991). Under-age children lived in 8.2 million households (just over 20% of all households) in 2009. In 1991, as many as 27% of the households still comprised under-age children.

In 2009, 24% of the households consisted only of people aged 65 years or over. In 6% of the households, elderly persons lived together with younger people, which means that 30% of the households comprised at least one senior citizen. The latter percentage has risen by 4 percentage points since 1991.

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