By IRNA,
Berlin : The weekly Der Spiegel news magazine reported ahead of its publication on Sunday that every fourth family (26 percent) is poor in Germany.
It quoted parts of a government study on poverty in Germany to be released for the public by the end of the year.
According to Der Spiegel, a total of 18 percent of Germans earned less than 50 percent of the average income.
The German Labor Ministry would not comment on the figures.
The last government report on poverty dates back to March 2005 which stated that 13.9 percent of German families or more than 11 million people were considered to be poor in Germany, a country still viewed as one of the richest in the world.
Social experts have cited tough unemployment and social welfare cuts by the government as the primary reason for the surge in the number of poor people in Germany.