The number of couples relying on the traditional model-where one partner has the main income while the other is marginally or not employed-is steadily declining. According to preliminary results from the 2025 Microcensus, published by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), there were approximately 14.0 million couples in the age bracket of 15 to 64 years in 2025.
In this year, 25.2% of these couples exhibited the traditional setup: one person was minimally or not employed, and the other was employed above this minimum threshold. However, the trend is shifting dramatically toward shared employment, with over two-thirds (68.8%) of all couples in the working age bracket reporting that both partners were employed above the minimal threshold. Furthermore, only 6.0% of couples reported that both partners were minimally or not employed.
This data shows a significant decline in the proportion of couples who fit the traditional pattern, which had been met by one in three (32.5%) of the nearly 14.4 million couples recorded in 2015. Conversely, the share of couples where both partners were strongly employed rose considerably, reaching 59.8% in 2015. Destatis notes that a driving factor for this transition may be the movement of many individuals from marginal employment into roles that provide a higher level of activity, potentially in part-time capacity. For comparison, the rate of couples where both partners were minimally or not employed stood at 7.7% in 2015.