Education: Every Third Teacher in Germany is 50 or Older

Germany's teaching workforce continues to age, with more than one-third of educators at general education schools now 50 years or older. The Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden reported that in the 2024/2025 school year, a quarter of these older teachers fall into the 50 to 59 age bracket, while one in ten has already passed their 60th birthday.

In contrast, younger teachers represent a smaller segment of the workforce. Only one-fifth of Germany's approximately 752,100 teachers are under 35 years old. Despite the high average age, the overall teaching population has slightly decreased in age over the past decade. In the 2014/2015 school year, over 42 percent of teachers were over 50, with 14 percent exceeding 60.

The proportion of teachers aged 30 to 40 has grown by about three percentage points to 27.7 percent, while the under-30 group has remained largely unchanged at around seven percent. Regional disparities persist, with eastern German states showing a higher concentration of older teachers compared to the national average. Saxony-Anhalt, for instance, has over half of its teachers aged 50 or older, followed by Mecklenburg-Vorpommern at 46.8 percent. The Saarland and Bremen have the lowest proportions, at 28.6 and 30 percent, respectively.

Furthermore, the rate of teachers working part-time has seen a slight increase, reaching a new record high of 43.9 percent in the 2024/2025 school year, up from 43.1 percent the previous year. This trend is particularly pronounced among women, with 51 percent of female teachers working part-time compared to 23 percent of male teachers. The data also reveals that teachers are more likely to work part-time than employees in other sectors, where the rate stands at 31 percent across all economic areas. Significant regional differences exist in part-time employment, with Hamburg (55 percent) and Bremen (52 percent) having over half of their teachers working part-time, while Thuringia (23 percent) and Saxony-Anhalt (24 percent) show much lower rates.