The latest figures from the care statistics show that there will be around 5.69 million people in need of care in Germany in 2023, a huge increase on previous years. People in need of care include all those who receive benefits from social long-term care insurance. The sharp increase continues to reflect the effects of the introduction of the extended definition of the need for long-term care on 1 January 2017, since when more people have been classified as needing long-term care than before.

Ten years ago, the number of people in need of care was 2.6 million. This means that the number of people in need of care in Germany has doubled in recent years (+117% since 2013, see figure). At the beginning of the millennium, the number was still growing at a comparatively moderate pace of 26%. This development is primarily due to the increasing number of people in need of care at home, which currently comprises 4.89 million people, almost twice as many as in 2017. In contrast, 0.8 million of those in need of care are receiving inpatient care in care homes. The ratio of those receiving care at home to those receiving inpatient care is around six to one, with the proportion shifting in favour of care at home.

The recording of the need for care is accompanied by the allocation of those in need of care to care grades 1 to 5, which have replaced the previous care levels since 2017. The extent of the health-related impairment of independence determines the classification to the care grades, whereby a higher care grade stands for a more severe impairment. A large part of the increase in the need for care is due to the higher number of people entitled to benefits under care grade 1: around 14% of people in need of care are now categorised here.

In addition, the majority of people in need of care (40%) fall under care level 2, as the right-hand side of the figure shows. A further 30% or 12% of those in need of care are more severely impaired and correspond to care levels 3 and 4 respectively, while around 4% belong to the group of care level 5 with the most severe impairments. Around 14% are slightly impaired and receive care level 1 benefits.

Other figures can be found here.