1 in 5 young Germans threatened by poverty
The Bertelsmann Foundation Social Justice Index found that 26 million children and young people – 27.9 percent of all those under 18 - are currently threatened by poverty and social exclusion across the EU.
In Germany 19.4 percent of under-18s are at risk of poverty or social exclusion, the study published in western Germany showed And 5.4 million of those aged 20-24 – 17.8 percent of that group - who are not in education, employment or training (NEETs) have "limited future prospects", the authors write.
"We can't afford a lost generation in Europe, either from a social or an economic perspective," Aart De Geus, Bertelsmann Foundation chairman, said of the results.
"The EU and its member states have to make special efforts to sustainably improve opportunities for young people."
Social justice: could do better
Despite its comparatively healthy economy, Germany only ranked seventh out of the 28 EU nations on the Social Justice Index, scoring 6.52 compared with first-placed Sweden's 7.23.
While that was slightly worse than 2014's score, "the country has measurably improved since our first social justice assessment in 2008," study author Daniel Schraad-Tischler found.
The score measures a range of factors - poverty prevention, education, access to jobs, social cohesion, health, and intergenerational justice – and saw Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Austria earn higher ratings than Germany.
Working hard, staying poor
Germany has the lowest youth unemployment of any EU nation at 7.7 percent and is second only to Sweden for overall employment levels, at 73.8 percent of the working-age population.
But that figure has been achieved with a very high proportion – 40 percent – of 'atypical' jobs, which see holders of fixed-term contracts and low-salaried jobs threatened with poverty despite working full-time.
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