More than a quarter of German households have no savings

Germany's household financial wealth continues to rise, yet more than a quarter of private households say they have no savings at all.

Some 27% of the 1,007 respondents in a survey conducted by polling institute Ipsos for ING bank said they had no money set aside.

A year earlier, the share had been slightly lower at 23.5%. At the same time, the proportion of people saving money fell from 70.7% in the 2024 survey to 63.7% in the poll conducted in December.

Almost half (46.7%) of respondents without savings said they did not earn enough to put money aside. Just over one in five (22%) said rising living costs had depleted their reserves.

Nearly one in five respondents (17.9%) said financial worries keep them awake at night. More than a third (36.5%) agreed with the statement, "Because of my financial situation, I feel that I will never have the things in life that I want."

According to figures from the Bundesbank, the financial wealth of private households in Germany reached a record €9.389 trillion ($10.912 trillion) by the end of the third quarter of 2025.

DZ Bank estimated the figure at just over €10 trillion for the full year and forecast a rise to €10.5 trillion this year.

However, wealth is unevenly distributed. Around half is held by the richest 10% of households – roughly 4 million households – while about 20 million households hold just 8% of total financial wealth, the Bundesbank said.