In Germany, approximately every fourth person is over 60 years old. Because of the long-standing low birth rates and parallel increasing life expectancy, German society has the third-largest proportion of elderly people worldwide after Japan and Italy. Their ways of life and lifestyles have likewise changed and diversified a lot over the last decades. Nowadays the vast majority of elderly people lead independent lives, are socially active, in contact with their children and relatives, and for the most part in terms of health in a position to determine their own lives and actively decide how to make use of their time.

Financially speaking the elder generation is for the most part taken care of: The 1957 pension reform gradually gave pensioners a full share in the nation’s wealth. Poverty in old age has not been done away with entirely, but the risk of being poor in old age is lower than that of other age groups.

It is increasingly seldom for three generations of one family to live under the same roof, but there are frequently strong emotional bonds between grown-up children and their parents and between grandparents and grandchildren. A Federal Government specimen project seeks to strengthen and secure cross-generational ties. Almost every district and each municipality in Germany now boasts a so-called multi-generational house. The 500 subsidized buildings, to which 15,000 people are committed nationwide, form a point of contact, network and hub for family advice, health support, crisis intervention and care planning.