Savings: Germans are way ahead in Europe when it comes to savings rates

People in Germany will also have saved above average in 2025. Private households saved 18.9 percent of their disposable income, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office. This means that the gross savings rate, i.e. the proportion of income that households put aside, was significantly above the EU average of 14.3 percent.

The Germans were only surpassed in Europe by the Swiss, who saved 27.4 percent. However, private pension provision is much more important there than in this country.

Within the European Union, private households in Italy saved particularly little, with a savings rate of 10.8 percent. This puts them almost at the level of the high-spending Americans, who only set aside 10.7 percent of their income for later. In the Netherlands the savings rate is 17.4 percent and in Austria it is 15.7 percent.

Only the gross savings rate can be compared

The statisticians use the gross savings rate for the international comparison because this is the only comparable data available, as the Federal Office explains. This takes into account what private households put away from their disposable income, for example in savings accounts or invest in the stock market, as well as newly acquired entitlements in company pension schemes.

According to Wiesbaden statisticians, the savings rate in Germany recently fell slightly. In the first half of 2026, as in the whole of 2025, it was 18.9 percent. In 2024 it was 19.6 percent. The gross savings rate reached a high of 22.9 percent in 2020: During the corona pandemic, many people had more money left over than in normal times because, for example, vacation trips were canceled and leisure facilities were temporarily closed.