Fewer and fewer people are living together as couples
Fewer and fewer people are living together as couples. In the first half of 2023, 60 percent of adults in Germany lived with a partner. This means that the proportion of couples living together has continued to fall, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office on Thursday. The proportion has been falling since the beginning of the time series in 1996, when 66 percent of people still lived together as a couple.
The proportion of married couples has also fallen. In 1996, nine out of ten partnerships in a shared household were still a married couple, as the statisticians reported on the basis of preliminary results from the microcensus. By mid-2023, this proportion had fallen from 91 to 84 percent. "The decline in married couples was particularly sharp among young couples," the statisticians reported.
The analysis looks at three groups of couples, depending on how old the older of the two partners is. In couples where the older partner is younger than 40, only six out of ten couples living together were still married in mid-2023, compared to eight out of ten couples in 1996.
If the older person is between 40 and 60 years old, the decline is much less pronounced. It only fell from 94 to 85 percent. In couples where the older person is at least 60, the proportion of married couples fell from 96% in 1996 to 93% in the first half of 2023.
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The Federal Statistical Office also revealed that the percentage of unmarried couples among all couple pairs has increased over the years. In 1996, only 10% of all pairings were unmarried, but by mid-2023, this figure had risen to 40%.
This statistical trend suggests that the concept of 'traditional' partnership structures is evolving in Germany, with pairs choosing different living arrangements beyond married couples.
Source: www.ntv.de
