At the end of 2015, nearly 8.0 million people, that is, 9.7% of the population received minimum social security benefits in Germany. The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) also reports that, as in the two preceding years, both the number and the proportion of recipients within the total population increased on a year earlier.

In 2015, the at-risk-of-poverty rate was higher than in 2005 in all western Länder except Hamburg. The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) also reports that over the past ten years the poverty risk rose most markedly in Nordrhein-Westfalen, where it increased 3.1 percentage points to 17.5% from 2005.