Creditreform Debt Atlas 2024 reports rising over-indebtedness in Germany

In November 2024, the credit agency Creditreform published its annual Schuldneratlas (debt atlas) for Germany. The report estimates how many adults are over-indebted, meaning they cannot repay their debts from their income and assets over the long term, even after covering basic living costs.

The 2024 edition put the figure at roughly 5.6 million adults, and it described the trend as rising. The atlas draws on Creditreform's credit-scoring data and breaks the results down by region, so it also shows where debt problems are most and least widespread across German states and districts.

The report mattered because it is one of the most widely cited yearly gauges of household financial stress in Germany. It appeared after years of high inflation and rising living costs, and it fed debate about debt counselling services, which are often stretched, and about how to help people before their finances collapse. Later editions of the atlas have been compared against this 2024 baseline.