A third of Germans cannot afford unexpected larger purchases

In 2012, 33.4 percent of the population in Germany lived in households which considered themselves unable to make unexpected expenses from their own financial resources, according to results from the 2012 survey of income and living conditions published on Tuesday. The survey added that just under 22 percent of the population could not afford to go on a holiday trip. However, the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reported the European Union (EU) average for the two figures stood at 40.2 percent and 39.6 percent respectively. Moreover, 8.2 percent of the German population said it was not possible for them to have a meal with meat, chicken or fish every other day due to financial reasons, while the EU average was 11 percent. Meanwhile, more than half of those surveyed said they could not afford a week-long vacation, and about a quarter said they had to give up full meals more frequently due to financial reasons. By the EU definition, one is at risk of poverty if the person has less than 60 percent of the middle income of the total population, according to Destatis. In 2011, the threshold for a person living alone in Germany was 980 euros (1,337 U.S. dollars) a month, and 2,058 euros (2,807 U.S. dollars) per month for two adults and two children under the age of 14.