“Debtor Atlas 2024”: Creditreform: Fewer people are over-indebted

The number of over-indebted people in Germany has fallen slightly this year. According to the credit agency Creditreform, 5.56 million people are affected, 94,000 fewer than last year. This is the lowest value since the evaluations began in 2004, according to the newly published “Debtors’ Atlas of Germany 2024”. The over-indebtedness rate, i.e. the proportion of over-indebted people in relation to all adults, fell from 8.15 to 8.09 percent. Anyone who cannot meet their financial obligations in the long term is considered over-indebted.

The sharp increase predicted by experts last year for 2024 did not materialize. The head of Creditreform economic research, Patrik-Ludwig Hantzsch, sees a serious reason for this: “German consumers are unsettled and afraid of the future. That’s why they’re holding on to their money.” The reasons for this are the persistently difficult economic situation, the policies of the federal government, the war in Ukraine and the elections in the USA. The pronounced tendency to save means that cases of over-indebtedness are reduced, says Hantzsch.

Over-indebtedness in Germany has declined in recent years. Nevertheless, according to Creditreform, the situation for individual groups remains difficult. Low-income earners in particular are affected by high energy and food prices. According to the study, single women are also affected more than average. Nevertheless, men are generally more likely to be over-indebted.

For its “Debtor Atlas,” Creditreform evaluates anonymized data from official registers, online retailers and other sources. The credit reporting agency changed its calculation methodology last year. The number 5.56 million is therefore not comparable to the data before 2023.