How the figures have changed

• Labour force
• In work

In 1996 the Federal Statistical Office counted 41.4 million people in the labour force. By 2025 it was 47.4 million.¹ 38.0 million people were in work in 1996 and 45.7 million in 2025. The most recent years with fewer than the year before were 2020 and 2025.¹

3.5 million people were without work and looking for it in 1996. The highest figure in the series was 4.5 million, in 2005.¹ By 2019 the number had fallen to 1.25 million. In 2025 it was 1.67 million.¹

• Break: the source counts differently from here.
• Method changed, the source still compares.

In 1996, 3.4 million people were self-employed in their main job. The microcensus counted the most in 2012, at 4.3 million. In 2024 there were 3.6 million.² In 2005 the microcensus switched to annual averages, and in 2011, 2020 and 2023 to a new extrapolation or survey design. After each of those three, the IfM says the figures can be compared with earlier ones only to a limited extent.² The survey also changed in 2016, 2017 and 2021, without the table marking a break: a new sample, private households only, and new questions on employment.³

• Break: the source counts differently from here.
• Method changed, the source still compares.

In 1996, 9.5 per cent of everyone in work was self-employed. The highest share was 11.2 per cent, in 2005, and in 2024 it was 8.4 per cent.⁴ Whether the sharp drop from 2019 to 2020 had economic causes or came from the new method, the IfM says it can’t yet say for certain.⁵

• On their own
• With employees
• Break: the source counts differently from here.
• Method changed, the source still compares.

In 2000, 1.84 million self-employed people worked on their own and 1.80 million had employees.⁶ The number working on their own rose to 2.46 million by 2012 and stood at 1.81 million in 2024. The number with employees stayed between 1.63 and 1.88 million throughout.^6,7,8

• Women
• Men
• Break: the source counts differently from here.
• Method changed, the source still compares.

In 1996, 0.92 million women and 2.49 million men were self-employed in their main job. In 2024 it was 1.18 million women and 2.38 million men.^8,9 Both peaked in 2012, at 1.37 million women and 2.94 million men.⁷

At the start of 1997 the IFB, an institute in Nuremberg that counts the liberal professions, put the self-employed among them at 0.64 million. At the start of 2025 it was 1.49 million. The number rose every year except from 2022 to 2023.^10,11 From 1997, newly recognised professions are included. The institute estimates the cultural professions from the microcensus and the artists’ social insurance statistics.¹⁰

• Micro businesses
• Small businesses
• Break: the source counts differently from here.

In 2024, 82.9 per cent of all businesses were micro businesses and 14.0 per cent were small. The micro share has been between 81.8 and 82.9 per cent since 2018.^12,17 Up to 2020 the table covers economic sections B to N without K, plus S95, and from 2022 sections B to S without O and S94, which adds finance, education, health and culture. The line breaks in between.^14,15

• In micro businesses
• In small businesses
• Break: the source counts differently from here.

In 2024, 18.0 per cent of everyone working in businesses worked in micro businesses and 20.1 per cent in small ones, owners included. In 2018 it was 18.4 and 22.1 per cent, counted across fewer economic sections.^12,17

• Germany
• US
• Method changed, the source still compares.

The TEA rate counts 18 to 64-year-olds who are starting a business or running one no more than three and a half years old. In 2001 it was 6.3 per cent in Germany and 11.1 per cent in the US.^18,20 In Germany it stayed between 3.8 and 5.6 per cent from 2002 to 2018. In 2025 it reached 13.0 per cent, the highest in the series, against 17.7 per cent in the US.¹⁸ It was higher in the US than in Germany every year. The table has no figure for Germany for 2007. In 2021 the GEM surveyed people in Germany online for the first time, as well as by phone.^18,19

• With an immigrant background
• Without
• Break: the source counts differently from here.
• Method changed, the source still compares.

Up to 2024 the GEM counts people with an immigrant background as those who immigrated since 1950 themselves or whose parents both did. Their TEA rate was higher than that of people without one every year since 2010, except 2018. In 2022 it was 19.9 per cent, against 8.3 per cent for people without an immigrant background.^21,22 From 2025 the GEM uses a new definition, under which one parent born abroad is enough, and says itself that the figures can’t be compared with the year before: 18.8 per cent with a migration background, 12.1 per cent without.²⁰

• In total
• Full-time
• Method changed, the source still compares.

In 2002 KfW counted 1,461,000 people starting a business, 669,000 of them full-time. The lowest figure was 537,000, in 2020, and in 2025 it was 690,000.^23,27,30 Full-time, it was 206,000 in 2025 and 203,000 in 2024. The lowest was 201,000, in 2020.^27,29,30 KfW changed its survey in 2008, 2010 and 2024, most recently by holding some interviews online. The line carries on through those years, as it does in KfW’s own charts.^30,31

• All new businesses
• Full-time
• Method changed, the source still compares.

Women’s share of all new businesses ranged from 34.0 per cent in 2002 to 44 per cent in 2023. In 2025 it was 35 per cent.^23,30 For full-time businesses it was lower every year, and in 2025, at 26.6 per cent, lower than in any other year since 2002.³¹ In its text KfW rounds these to 35 and 27 per cent for 2025. The figures here come from its charts and tables.^30,31

• Break: the source counts differently from here.

In 2013, 12.8 per cent of startup founders were women. After 10.7 per cent in 2014 the share rose every year, to 20.7 per cent in 2023. It fell to 18.8 per cent in 2024 and was 19.8 per cent in 2025.^38,40 Up to 2015 the German Startup Monitor recorded only the gender of the person answering, and from 2016 that of the whole founding team.⁴³

• All-male teams
• All-female teams

All-male founding teams received 87 per cent of venture capital in both 2023 and 2024, and 94 per cent in 2025. All-female teams got 2 per cent in 2023 and about 1 per cent in 2024 and 2025.^44,45 EY counts only startups whose founding team is known.^44,45

• Founders
• Population aged 18 to 64
• Method changed, the source still compares.

Since 2017 the share with an immigrant background among founders has been as high as in the working-age population or higher, every year. In 2025 it was 34 against 28 per cent.^30,46 KfW counts first and second generations, meaning people who immigrated themselves or whose parents both did. Its series starts in 2017. Earlier KfW publications counted by citizenship or migration background and don’t belong on the same line.⁴⁶