Germany

Region: Europe and North America
 

Classification of economies by geographic region is based on that of the United Nations Statistics Division.

High Income
 

Based on the income levels set out by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in its Global Competitiveness Report. However, the groupings are slightly different due to the numbers of economies covered. For GEM, the low income group contains both those classified as low income and lower middle by WEF, and the middle income group has those that WEF groups as upper middle. High income is the same for both GEM and WEF.

Population: 82.7 million (2018)
 

Population data is from the World Bank, except Palestinian Territories World Population Review and Taiwan Worldometers

GDP Growth: 1.5% (2018)
 

GDP growth data is from the World Economic Outlook Database, except Palestinian Territories Worldometers

GDP Per Capita: $48,264 (2018)
 

GDP per capita data is from the World Economic Outlook Database, except Palestinian Territories Worldometers

Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Attitudes

Most recent data: 2023
  • Germany 2023
  • Germany 2022
  • Global Average
  • Regional Average
  • Income Level Average

Self-Perceptions

  • 1
     
    Perceived Opportunities Rate:Percentage of 18-64 population (individuals involved in any stage of entrepreneurial activity excluded) who see good opportunities to start a firm in the area where they live
  • 2
     
    Perceived Capabilities Rate:Percentage of 18-64 population (individuals involved in any stage of entrepreneurial activity excluded) who believe they have the required skills and knowledge to start a business
  • 3
     
    Fear of Failure Rate*:Percentage of the 18–64 population who agree that they see good opportunities but would not start a business for fear it might fail. NOTE: this is a percentage of those seeing good opportunities, and not the total adult population
  • 4
     
    Entrepreneurial Intentions Rate:Percentage of 18-64 population (individuals involved in any stage of entrepreneurial activity excluded) who are latent entrepreneurs and who intend to start a business within three years
  • 1. Perceived Opportunities Rate
  • 2. Perceived Capabilities Rate
  • 3. Fear of Failure Rate*
  • 4. Entrepreneurial Intentations Rate:

Activity

  • 1
     
    Total early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA):Percentage of 18-64 population who are either a nascent entrepreneur or owner-manager of a new business
  • 2
     
    Established Business Ownership Rate:Percentage of 18-64 population who are currently an owner-manager of an established business, i.e., owning and managing a running business that has paid salaries, wages, or any other payments to the owners for more than 42 months
  • 3
     
    Entrepreneurial Employee Activity Rate:Rate of involvement of employees in entrepreneurial activities, such as developing or launching new goods or services, or setting up a new business unit, a new establishment or subsidiary
  • 1. Total early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA)
  • 2. Established Business Ownership Rate
  • 3. Entrepreneurial Employee Activity Rate

Motivations

  • 1
     
    Motivational Index:Percentage of those involved in TEA that are improvement-driven opportunity motivated, divided by the percentage of TEA that is necessity-motivated
  • 1. Motivational Index

Gender Equity

  • 1
     
    Female/Male TEA Ratio:Percentage of female 18-64 population who are either a nascent entrepreneur or owner-manager of a 'new business', divided by the equivalent percentage for their male counterparts
  • 2
     
    Female/Male Opportunity-Driven TEA Ratio:Percentage of those females involved in TEA who (i) claim to be driven by opportunity as opposed to finding no other option for work; and (ii) who indicate the main driver for being involved in this opportunity is being independent or increasing their income, rather than just maintaining their income, divided by the equivalent percentage for their male counterparts
  • 1. Female/Male TEA Ratio
  • 2. Female/Male Opportunity-Driven TEA Ratio

Impact

  • 1
     
    High Job Creation Expectation Rate:Percentage of those involved in TEA who expect to create 6 or more jobs in 5 years
  • 2
     
    Innovation Rate:Percentage of those involved in TEA who indicate that their product or service is new to at least some customers AND that few/no businesses offer the same product
  • 3
     
    Business Services Sector Rate:Percentage of those involved in TEA in the 'Business Services' sector - Information and Communication, Financial Intermediation and Real Estate, Professional Services or Administrative Services, as defined by the ISIC 4.0 Business Type Codebook
  • 1. High Job Creation Expectation Rate
  • 2. Innovation Rate
  • 3. Business Services Sector Rate

Societal Values

  • 1
     
    High Status to Successful Entrepreneurs Rate:Percentage of 18-64 population who agree with the statement that in their country, successful entrepreneurs receive high status
  • 2
     
    Entrepreneurship as a Good Career Choice Rate:Percentage of 18-64 population who agree with the statement that in their country, most people consider starting a business as a desirable career choice
  • 1. High Status to Successful Entrepreneurs Rate
  • 2. Entrepreneurship as a Good Career Choice Rate

Entrepreneurial Framework Conditions

Most recent data: 2023

Expert Ratings: 1 = highly insufficient, 5 = highly sufficient

  • Germany 2023
  • Germany 2022
  • Regional Average
  • Income Level Average
  • Global Average
  • Germany 2023
  • Germany 2022
  • Regional Average
  • Income Level Average
  • Global Average

2023 POLICY ROADMAP

Germany continues to suffer a lack of economic growth relative to most European economies, but also with low unemployment. This lack of growth reflects the shortage of skilled labour, and the budget difficulties of federal and regional governments. Inflation was low and falling and is back to pre-recession levels.

The federal government has introduced a new fund to support businesses with high growth potential (“gazelles”).

2023 Framework Conditions Review1

Recent National Entrepreneurial Context Index (NECI) scores have suggested that the assessed quality of
the overall German entrepreneurial environment has hovered on the edge of sufficient for the past few years, but slipped into less than sufficient in 2023 with a score of 4.8. In doing so, Germany has joined the group of high-income European and North American economies with an assessed overall entrepreneurial environment that has fallen from sufficient to less than sufficient since the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2023, just five of 13 German Entrepreneurial Framework Conditions (EFCs) scored as sufficient or better, with, for the third year in a row, Government Entrepreneurial Programs scoring highest. While this score dipped slightly in 2023, it was still the highest among Level A economies, and fourth highest in GEM. This was just one of 10 scores to fall in 2023, including both entrepreneurial finance conditions, which each fell below sufficient, and both government policy conditions. Entrepreneurial Education at School continues to be the lowest-rated German condition by far, with its score of 2.6 even lower than the year before, and now the next to lowest score for this condition in Level A. However, the scores for Physical Infrastructure and for Social and Cultural Norms also fell, ranking both of these in the bottom 10 in GEM 2023.

New questions asked national experts in Germany to rate the social support given to women entrepreneurs, and how their access to resources compared to men.

Social support scored 3.7, below sufficient, while comparative access to resources scored 5.2, better than sufficient.

By 2023, Germany, with its international finance centre in Frankfurt, was rated insufficient for both Entrepreneurial Finance conditions, and in the bottom 10 for Physical Infrastructure, just like its long-standing competitor, the United Kingdom.

2023 Entrepreneurial Activity Review

One in four adults in Germany reported that their household income had fallen in 2023, down a little from 2022.

Entrepreneurship had a low public profile in Germany, with just over one in three adults knowing someone who had recently started their own business, and two in five considering themselves to have the skills and experience to be able to start their own, both the lowest among Level A economies, and both third lowest in GEM. A similar ratio of two adults in five saw good opportunities to start a business locally, but the same proportion would not start a business for fear it might fail. Perhaps as a result, just one in eight adults not already doing so in Germany intended to start their own business within the next three years, the lowest proportion in Level A and fifth lowest in GEM.

Levels of new entrepreneurial activity in Germany in 2023 were good, with about one in eight adults starting or running a new business, down a little from record levels the previous year. Germany had around three men starting a new business for every two women doing the same, and the Established Business Ownership rate was also low, at about one in 25, sixth lowest in GEM.

More than one in two new entrepreneurs agreed with the motivation to build great wealth or very high income, closely followed by making a difference in the world. Two in five new entrepreneurs expected to use more digital technologies in the next six months, while a similar proportion had customers beyond Germany. Job growth expectations were high, with more than one in five of those starting or running a new business expecting to employ at least six more people over the next five years.

1 A brief description of the GEM approach is given in the footnote on p. 107.

Germany Reports

Name
Report information
pdf
  • Year of publication: 2024
  • Category: National Reports
  • Language: German
  • Upload date: 2024-08-01

  • In 2023, the Total early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity for Germany is 7.7%, the second highest value in GEM Germany since 1999. Compared with the other 45 GEM-participating countries, Germany is in the bottom third.
  • URL: https://www2.gemconsortium.org/report/51432
 GEM Germany 2023/2024 National Report
Report information
pdf
  • Year of publication: 2023
  • Category: National Reports
  • Language: English
  • Upload date: 2023-08-01

  • The 23rd GEM Germany National Report describes and explains the entrepreneurial activities and perceptions about entrepreneurship in Germany in 2022. It compares the findings from Germany with those of the other 49 participating countries and with data of previous years. The results of the country report are based on the responses of 4,110 randomly selected individuals of a representative survey and on the answers of 70 entrepreneurship experts in Germany. Both groups were surveyed between June and August of 2022. Key report findings: • Entrepreneurship rates rise again • International trend: entrepreneurial activities increase by 0.4 percentage points • Number of younger entrepreneurs has increased • The population with immigration history are more likely to start a business than those born in Germany • The TEA rate for women: The increase in entrepreneurial activities does not lead to the dissolution of the gender gap • Low shares of technology-oriented ventures and ventures with growth expectations • The integration of social and ecological measures is particularly important for founders • Strengths and weaknesses of Germany as a location for new ventures: Innovation-friendly environment with infrastructure in need of improvement.

  • URL: https://www2.gemconsortium.org/report/51195
 GEM 2023/2023 Germany National Report
Report information
pdf
  • Year of publication: 2022
  • Category: National Reports
  • Language: German
  • Upload date: 2022-06-13

  • The GEM Country Report Germany was presented to the public at the end of May 2022. On 27 May, the official publication date, the very influential German business magazine "WirtschaftsWoche" reported in its print version on the key findings of the Country Report. One day later, the online version of the same magazine published another report on the topic as well as an interview with Prof. Rolf Sternberg (Leibniz University Hannover), the team leader of GEM Germany. The RKW Competence Centre in Eschborn, which finances, organises and supports the GEM in Germany on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action, presented the key findings of the new Country Report in an online event (147 participants) and discussed them with numerous invited experts from business, science and politics. Among the participants was Michael Kellner, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action and Federal Government Commissioner for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises.. The event has addressed key and future topics from the GEM: Start-ups by women, start-ups by people with an immigration background and digital start-ups. The focus was on how start-ups can contribute to securing and further expanding the competitiveness and innovative strength of German SMEs in the coming decades.

  • URL: https://www2.gemconsortium.org/report/50944
 GEM Germany National Report 2021/2022
Report information
pdf
  • Year of publication: 2022
  • Category: National Reports
  • Language: English
  • Upload date: 2022-06-13

  • The GEM Country Report Germany was presented to the public at the end of May 2022. On 27 May, the official publication date, the very influential German business magazine "WirtschaftsWoche" reported in its print version on the key findings of the Country Report. One day later, the online version of the same magazine published another report on the topic as well as an interview with Prof. Rolf Sternberg (Leibniz University Hannover), the team leader of GEM Germany. The RKW Competence Centre in Eschborn, which finances, organises and supports the GEM in Germany on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action, presented the key findings of the new Country Report in an online event (147 participants) and discussed them with numerous invited experts from business, science and politics. Among the participants was Michael Kellner, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action and Federal Government Commissioner for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises.. The event has addressed key and future topics from the GEM: Start-ups by women, start-ups by people with an immigration background and digital start-ups. The focus was on how start-ups can contribute to securing and further expanding the competitiveness and innovative strength of German SMEs in the coming decades.
  • URL: https://www2.gemconsortium.org/report/50945
 GEM Germany National Report 2021/2022 - Executive Summary
Report information
pdf
  • Year of publication: 2021
  • Category: National Reports
  • Language: English
  • Upload date: 2021-08-19

  • 2019 was a record year in Germany for Total early-stage entrepreneurial activity. A total of 7.6% of the 18-64 population were either nascent entrepreneurs or owner-manager of a new business. The global pandemic reversed this trend. In 2020, this number decreased to 4.8% according to the 2020/2021 German National Report published by Leibniz Universität Hannover and RKW. This rate is back in line with the long-term average over the years.
  • URL: https://www2.gemconsortium.org/report/50721
 GEM 2020/2021 German National Report
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