Growing up in Educationally Disadvantaged Families: What the Microcensus Tells us about its Occurrence and Consequences

The author’s analysis of the microcensus shows that between 2011 and 2021 the proportion of minors whose parents lack vocational qualifications rose from 11.4 to 17.6 per cent. More than one in twenty now belong to the particularly vulnerable group of children whose parents have no school-leaving certificate. However, the situation varies greatly from region to region. The share of such children is particularly high in the populous cities of North Rhine-Westphalia and relatively low in the smaller municipalities (with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants) in Germany’s eastern states and in Bavaria in the south. Many of these children face further obstacles to a successful education, such as their parents' use of a foreign language and non-participation in the labour market. As a result, such youngsters are not only much less likely to attend a high school, but also far more likely than their peers to be overweight between the ages of 15 to 17. It is thus not only in the field of education that they need dedicated remedial support, which should be provided as close as possible to their living environment. However, according to the microcensus, in 2021 only 17.1 per cent of educationally disadvantaged children under three and 73.4 per cent of those between the ages of three and five attended a daycare centre, compared to 29.6 and 87.5 per cent respectively of their better situated peers.