For students, housing costs represent a significantly greater burden than they do for the population as a whole. Measured against disposable household income, housing costs for students who run their own household are "more than twice as high as for the general population," the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced on Wednesday. While the share of income spent on housing for the general population averages 24 percent, the figure for students stands at 54 percent.
As a result, significantly more students count as "overburdened by housing costs," the Federal Statistical Office explained. This classification applies when housing costs, even after deducting housing-related transfer payments, still amount to more than 40 percent of disposable household income. Last year in Germany, this was the case for 65 percent of students running their own household, compared with just 11 percent of households in the general population.
Fundamentally, many students have only a low income at their disposal, according to the Federal Statistical Office. "Half of students with their own household most recently had a net equivalised income of less than 963 euros per month," the statisticians explained. This is also because "they are at a stage in life in which they are investing in their education and, in turn, in their future careers."
Students draw large portions of their income from their own employment. According to the statistics, students running their own household earned an average of 45 percent of their income from paid work. Private support, including maintenance payments from relatives, accounted for 29 percent. BAföG payments or scholarships made up 14 percent of income, while 12 percent came from other sources such as child benefit or survivor's pension.
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