
German Health System Overview
Health System Rankings
Outcomes
Health System Coverage
Costs for Consumers
Health System Expenditures
Germany’s COVID-19 Strategy
Population (2020): 83,160,871
Gross National Income, Atlas method, in Current US$ (Billions) (2020): $3,951.9
GNI per capita, Atlas method, in Current US$ (2020): $47,520
Income Share Held by Lowest 20% (2020): NA
Gross Domestic Product in Current US$ (Billions) (2020): $3,846.4
Source: World Bank. Country Profile: Germany. World Development Indicators. Last accessed Sept. 1, 2022.
Gross Domestic Product Per Capita (Current USD) (2010-2019): $46,468
Share of Household Income (2010-2019):
Bottom 40%: 20.4%; Top 20%: 39.6%; Bottom 20%: 7.6%
Gini Coefficient (2010-2019): 29.7
Palma Index of Income Inequality (2010-2019): 1.1
Gini coefficient – Gini index measures the extent to which the distribution of income (or, in some cases, consumption expenditure) among individuals or households within an economy deviates from a perfectly equal distribution. A Gini index of 0 represents perfect equality, while an index of 100 implies perfect inequality.
Palma index of income inequality – Palma index is defined as the ratio of the richest 10% of the population’s share of gross national income divided by the poorest 40%’s share.
Source: United Nations Children’s Fund, The State of the World’s Children 2021: On My Mind – Promoting, protecting and caring for children’s mental health, UNICEF, New York, October 2021.
“Germany is a member of the G7 group of leading industrial nations and has the largest national economy in the EU by GDP. In 2018 Germany’s GDP amounted to more than € 3.3 trillion, or approximately € 40 329 per capita (Table 1.2). The German economy grew by more than 2% annually between 2014 and 2018.
“Total public expenditure as a percentage of GDP has decreased since the mid-1990s from 54.7% in 1995 to 44.6% in 2018 (the EU average was 45.7% over this period). Some of the reasons for this trend include reductions in the number of public sector employees and in social security benefits. The temporary increase after 2008 can be explained by the massive use of government funds to limit the global financial and economic crisis (e.g. stimulus programmes, rescue packages for banks), while GDP was declining at the same time. Since 2011 the ratio has remained largely constant at around 44%.”
Source: Blümel M, Spranger A, Achstetter K, Maresso A, Busse R. Germany: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2020; 22(6): pp.i–273.
“Germany is one of the wealthiest countries in the world and has a comparably well-developed social security system. At the same time, however, there are considerable inequalities in terms of living conditions and opportunities for social participation. This is shown, among other things, by the unequal distribution of income and wealth, the poor prospects of low-skilled people in the labour market, the expansion of precarious employment conditions and the persisting association between social origin and educational opportunities (Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales (BMAS), 2017a). The share of people at risk of poverty has decreased slightly since 2015 and is lower than the EU average (18.7% compared to 21.9%). Nevertheless, in light of the increasing Gini coefficient since 2000, inequality of income distribution has tended to grow in Germany over the last two decades (Table 1.2).”
Source: Blümel M, Spranger A, Achstetter K, Maresso A, Busse R. Germany: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2020; 22(6): pp.i–273.
Health Systems Facts is a project of the Real Reporting Foundation. We provide reliable statistics and other data from authoritative sources regarding health systems in the US and sixteen other nations.
Page last updated Jan. 25, 2023 by Doug McVay, Editor.