Nearly one in four Germans under 30 has already ended a relationship by text or messenger, according to a survey released this Friday by the IT‑industry association Bitkom. Of the 16‑to‑29‑year‑olds surveyed, 25 percent said they had broken up that way, compared with an overall figure of 13 percent across all age groups.
Despite the many digital options, face‑to‑face conversation remains the most common method of ending a partnership. Sixty percent of respondents reported having broken up in person at least once. Among younger participants that share was only 45 percent, whereas 66 percent of those aged 30‑49 and 67 percent of those aged 50‑59 admitted to having used direct talks.
Telephone calls also rank high, with 12 percent of the sample using the phone to end a relationship. Other electronic channels are less frequently employed: 4 percent use social networks, another 4 percent do so via e‑mail, and 8 percent have ended a relationship by writing a letter. Ghosting, the abrupt cessation of contact, was chosen by 9 percent of the respondents.
The data were collected online by Bitkom Research from 1,449 German internet users aged 16 and over. The survey ran during the third and fourth calendar weeks of 2026.