The rising unemployment rate in Germany has forced an increasing number of people to permanently move to campgrounds in an attempt to save money.


According to a report published by Spiegel Online International on Wednesday, thousands of people have transformed campsites from holiday spots to residential communities.

They say they cannot afford living in urban areas.

“Over the last 10 years, more and more campers have moved in full time,” said Leo Ingenlath, the chairman of the Association of Recreational and Camping Enterprises in Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia.

The report stated that, due to a relaxation of laws, tenants are not needed to present certification from their landlords when they register their address with the government, which allows them to choose to register themselves as living at a campground.

Campground websites advertise the option of registering a campsite lot as a main address.

Even Germany’s postal service, Deutsche Post, is now offering tips “on its website to those planning to move to a campground full time,” the report added.

Official data released by Germany’s Labor Office on Thursday indicated that the country’s jobless rate jumped to its highest level since April 2011 on a seasonally-adjusted basis in November.

The number of the unemployed people in Germany increased by 10,000 to 2.985 million in the noted month, the official figures showed.

Germany’s Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) and the European Union’s statistics office, Eurostat, reported in October that 16.1 percent of the German population or approximately 13 million people run the risk of plunging into relative poverty.