Health: More than 5 million people in need of care in Germany

Around 5.7 million people in Germany were dependent on care at the end of last year. The number has increased by more than 700,000 people since December 2021, as the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden announced. The statisticians also attributed the strong increase to the introduction of the broader definition of need for care in 2017 – since then, people have been more likely to be classified as needing care than before.

Almost nine out of ten people in need of care (86 percent or 4.9 million people) were cared for at home in December 2023. According to the Federal Office, 3.1 million of them only received care allowance and were mainly cared for by relatives. A further 1.1 million people in need of care also lived in private households and were cared for together with or entirely by outpatient care and support services.

Among those in need of care at home there are also 680,000 people with the lowest care level 1. 640,000 of them did not use any services from nursing homes or outpatient services in December 2023. Whether they received further assistance is not recorded in the care statistics.

In addition to the services provided by outpatient services and nursing homes, care level 1 also includes other services that are not included in the care statistics, such as advice, nursing courses, nursing aids or improvements to the living environment. Due to the different benefit law, those in need of care in level 1 do not receive any care allowance.

Above all, the number of people cared for at home is increasing

According to the statisticians, a seventh of those in need of care (14 percent or 800,000 people) received full-time care in nursing homes. Compared to December 2021, the number of these people increased slightly by 0.8 percent. The number of people cared for at home, however, increased sharply by 17 percent, an increase of 721,000 people in need of care. The group of people in need of care in care level 1 who did not use any services from outpatient or inpatient facilities also grew (plus 21 percent or 118,000).

The majority of those in need of care were 65 years of age and older (78 percent), and around a third were at least 85 years old. The majority of those cared for were female (61 percent). This is due, among other things, to the fact that women have a longer life expectancy and the likelihood of needing care increases with age. Around eleven percent of people aged 70 to 74 were in need of care – but the care rate for those aged 90 and over was 87 percent.