Press release No. 374 of 20 October 2017
WIESBADEN – In 2016, the youth unemployment rate in Germany was at the lowest level (7.1%) since the early 1990s. In the context of presenting the Statistical Yearbook 2017 on 20 October in Berlin, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) also reports that this was the lowest share in the EU. "Standing at 18.7%, the youth unemployment rate is high for the EU as a whole, and in some Member States it is considerably higher still. No EU country had a lower proportion of young people without a job than Germany", said Dr. Georg Thiel, Vice-President of the Federal Statistical Office, at the press conference on "Germany in Europe". In the southern European countries in crisis - Greece (47.3%), Spain (44.4%) and Italy (37.8%) - the youth unemployment rate continued to be above average. Youth unemployment refers to 15 to 24 year olds who are not in employment but are actively looking for work and would immediately be available.
Marked differences within the EU are also observed for the cost of living. In 17 Member States, the price level was in part markedly lower than in Germany in 2016, according to provisional results. This included Spain, where the price of a comparable basket of goods and services was by 11% lower. The lowest prices in the EU were recorded in Bulgaria, where people paid 58% less than here. In Denmark, things were more expensive than in Germany. There, the cost of living was higher by more than a third (34%).
To mark the European Statistics Day, Dr. Georg Thiel emphasised the important function of the National Statistical Institutes in all EU Member States and of the European statistical office Eurostat: "Together we provide high-quality statistics that are politically independent but politically relevant on the economic and social situation in Europe. European statistics are no longer a coordinated combination of individual national systems. Instead, they have developed into a coherent system of European statistics."
Further facts on the economic and social situation in Germany were presented, using the Statistical Yearbook 2017:
- 59% of German exports of goods went to other EU countries in 2016
- 43% of all foreigners living in Germany in 2016 were citizens of another EU country.
- German students went mainly to Austria (27,000), the Netherlands (22,000) and the United Kingdom (17,000) in 2014.
- Germany was among the EU countries with the highest gross monthly earnings in 2014 (in nominal terms: 3,045 euros for full-time employees in enterprises with at least 10 persons employed in the private sector). However, Germany had one of the highest earnings gaps between women and men in the EU; the unadjusted gender pay gap was 22% in 2015.
- Germany is the no. 1 country of tenants in the EU: Almost half of the population (48%) lived in rented accommodation in 2015. Especially in the east European countries, the large majority of people lived in their own homes. In Romania, for example, the rate was 96%.
The 66th edition of the Statistical Yearbook contains national and international data on issues regarding the economy and the society. All figures are available online. The Yearbook is available as a free online version and as a printed version that can be obtained from booksellers or be ordered at www.destatis.de/jahrbuch (order number: 1010110-17700-1, ISBN: 978-3-8246-1057-0, 71 euros).
Detailed documents relating to the press conference are available here (only in german).