Disaster risk awareness and preparedness of the EU population: Germany

The Germany report highlights political and geopolitical tensions, along with extreme weather events, as the top concerns, with mass population displacement being a significantly higher focus than in other EU countries. Germans feel more optimistic about understanding risks than other EU residents, yet they actually have less awareness and accessibility to relevant information. Despite this, they have taken more measures to prepare for disaster risks, primarily relying on formal sources, especially local media. This gap emphasizes the need for improved information dissemination. Additionally, Germans are slightly more critical than their EU counterparts in their trust of government and emergency management services.

This serial survey assesses the awareness of EU citizens about the disaster risks that could affect them, their preparedness to face various disaster risk scenarios, and the reliance they place on a range of actors in disaster situations. The survey also explores the engagement of EU citizens in voluntary work to increase disaster resilience.