German start-up founders trending younger with 40% under 30

Under-30s in Germany are founding start-ups in record numbers, forming 40% of founders across the country, a major study showed.

The analysis by the KfW development bank said the average age of founders fell to a low of 34.2 years in 2025, slightly lower than the 34.4 recorded in the previous year. 

"Germany's start-up landscape is continuing to get younger," KfW wrote. 

By way of comparison, the average age at the start of the millennium was 37 to 38 years old, while only 24% of founders were under 30 in 2005. 

More than a fifth of founders under 30 launched their businesses while still at university. 

The German economy "needs creative and courageous entrepreneurs," said KfW chief economist Dirk Schumacher. Yet self-employment does not have the best reputation in the country, he argued.

Overall, the number of founders rose to 690,000 in 2025 – up from 585,000 the previous year. 

The increase was largely due to part-time start-ups, which rose from 283,000 to 483,000 over the year even as full-time start-ups hardly changed.

Since the turn of the century, the number of start-ups in Germany has fallen significantly; in 2002, for example, there were around 1.5 million start-ups. 

Reasons for the decline include the ageing population, but also the strong labour market over the years, which has offered many people attractive permanent jobs, said Schumacher.