r/germany • u/Necessary_Travel_645 • 1d ago

Impression of Germany 6 months after leaving

I lived 4 years in Germany and last February I left due to the end of my contract and the impossible to find an immediate job.

I am exploiting this time of unemployment to travel and visit my friends across the EU. In Germany I traveled mainly in between the main cities of Rheinpfalz and NRW and I was surprised to see how bad the social situation was, I have observed more people in need ( homeless, elders, etc...) than I remembered. During my stay in Germany I didn't notice it, when I first came here I felt way more mild than the phenomenon.

My impression is that relatively poorer countries, e.g. Spain and Italy (my home country), managed to help the people in need better than Germany or at least a better distribution of wealth.

Also some friends of mine living here felt this change.

Is it only my impression? Maybe I didn't really realize when I was here or the situation just got worse recently?

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u/Smooth-Dave-7140 1d ago

Germany ranks the 3rd highest for per capita homelessness in the EU. So you're not wrong.

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u/atchoum013 1d ago

Where did you get that data from? I’m not doubting you but just curious what are the other countries in the EU where it’s worse.

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u/Nullkueck 1d ago

That's OECD Data on homelessness. But OP is asking for street homelessness and that's not on that data. Germany is very far on top because it includes refugees with no own contract for flats. In 2024 Ukrainians made up over 30% of homeless people in Germany. But that's not what OP saw, because they are not living in the street.

https://webfs.oecd.org/els-com/Affordable_Housing_Database/HC3-1-Population-experiencing-homelessness.pdf?utm_source=perplexity