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EACEA National Policies Platform:Eurydice
Political and economic situation

Germany

1.Political, social and economic background and trends

1.4Political and economic situation

Last update: 27 November 2023

Gross national revenue in Germany reached Euro 3,987.3 billion in 2022. Per capita this was Euro 47,559. Gross domestic product totalled Euro 3,858.3 billion and Euro 46,020 per capita.

In 2021, based on the yearly average according to the microcensus, the number of people in employment in Germany was just less than 41.5 million or 58.7 per cent of the working-age population, including more than 19.4 million women, i.e. 54 per cent of the female working-age population. 

In 2022, the average number of unemployed was just less than 2.4 million people, just less than 1.85 million in the Länder in western Germany and just less than 0.6 million unemployed in the Länder in eastern Germany. In the Länder in western Germany, the unemployment rate was 5.0 per cent, in the Länder in eastern Germany 6.3 per cent. This amounts to an unemployment rate for Germany of 5.3 per cent. An average of 203,479 (8.4 per cent of all unemployed people) persons under 25 years of age were without employment in 2022.

Education spending as a proportion of gross domestic product

2005 2010 2021 
3.8 4.1 4.7

Source: Statistisches Bundesamt, Bildungsfinanzbericht 2022

Educational attainment of the 25-64-year-old population in per cent

  2005 2010 2021
Below upper secondary 17 14 14
Upper secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary 59 59 54
Tertiary education 25 27 32

Source: Secretariat of the Standing Conference