How the older fifth lives

Working mostly with numbers from the end of 2013 and 2014, the Federal Statistical Office has found that many older people in Germany live alone rather than with partners, they watch more television than anyone else, and more senior citizens are working jobs than ever before.

Germany has the second-highest number of senior citizens in the European Union, behind Italy, the Federal Statistical Office announced on Wednesday. Of the 81 million people living in Germany, 17 million, or 21 percent, are 65 or older.

In 2005, 5 percent of people aged 65 to 69 were still employed. In 2014, 14 percent of that same demographic was still working. Thirty-nine percent of the people between 65 and 69 who were still working were self-employed or helping out relatives, up from 16 percent in 2005.

"The employment rate of older people has more than doubled in a short time," Federal Statistical Office President Roderich Egeler said at a press conference.

'Extra money helps'

In 2005, 28 percent of people aged 60-64 - just before the traditional retirement age of 65 - still worked. By 2014, that number had risen to 52 percent - almost double the previous rate.

"We couldn't find one explicit answer for this," Federal Statistical Office spokesman Klaus Pötzsch told DW.

"The people are fit, and healthy, and so some of them think, 'Yes, I can still work,'" he added. "Some of them want to still increase their standard of living, and so a little extra money helps, but most of them are only working a few hours a day. Very few of them are still full-time employees."

And, of course, as finances become less certain "some of them think 'I still have my rent to pay, so I still need to work,'" Pötzsch said.

Most of those still working were men: 17 percent of men aged 65 to 69 and 59 percent of those aged 60 to 64.

Seventy-three percent of women living with partners had a monthly income of under 900 euros ($995). Nearly 80 percent of these women live in households where the total income is over 1,500 euros. Seventy-one percent of married men live from pensions.

"These structures are a result the division of roles with which today's older generation lived when they were still at work," according to the study. "The man was normally working full time. Many women were not gainfully employed, reduced their scope of work or interrupted the career, at least temporarily, to raise children."

More senior citizens also need in-home care, and more people have begun claiming supplemental benefits from the state. In 2013, nearly 500,000 people older than 65 required additional assistance - almost twice as many as in 2003.

At the end of 2013, 2.2 million people 65 and older were in need of full-time hospice care, two-thirds of them at home. The proportion of seniors in treatment in hospital rose in the last decade from 38.5 percent to 43.2 percent. In 2014, senior citizens made up 29 percent of the people killed in road accidents, up from 16 percent two decades earlier.

A woman alone

Forty-five percent of women aged 65 and older live alone, compared with only 19 percent of men.

The divide grows as age increases. Seventy-four percent of women aged 85 and older live in single-person households, and 34 percent of men.

Accoring to the report, the discrepancy owes mainly to the lower life expectancy of men. The total population of the 65-plus demographic is 57 percent women, and statistically a woman aged 65 in 2013 could expect to live another 20 years and nine months.

Leisure time in retirement

Senior citizens in Germany watch an average of 18.5 hours of television a week, spend 6.75 hours reading books and are generally "more active in other areas of life than before," the study found.

In 2014, 57 percent of seniors had a computer, up from 49 percent in 2010, and 45 percent use the Internet.

More seniors are also choosing to continue their education. As of the 2014-15 winter semester, 42 percent of all "guest students" were 65 or older, up from 31 percent 10 years ago.