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 terms of the at-risk-of-poverty rate, the poverty risk was lowest in the southern Länder of Baden-Württemberg (11.9%) and Bayern (12.1%) in 2016. The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reports that the highest poverty risk in all of Germany was recorded for Bremen (22.6%), followed by Sachsen-Anhalt (21.4%) and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (20.4%). The at-risk-of-poverty rate is an indicator measuring the relative income distribution.