Burnout in Germany: 184 sick days per 100 insured (AOK 2024)

Two metrics — both correct, different things

Burnout statistics use two structurally different reference units that are often blurred. Both are correct, but they describe different things — only together do they give a complete picture.

The two metrics are not contradictory — they complement each other: 184 sick days per 100 insurance years ÷ ~32 days per case ≈ 5.7 burnout cases per 100 employees per year. So whoever wants to size the burnout burden for a 100-person workforce can take either path — and should arrive at the same order of magnitude.

Social occupations as a cluster

The longest burnout durations cluster in social and caring occupations and their respective management tier. Care, social work, education and the supervisory level form a band of 24–44 days per case. Service roles with intense customer contact (dialog marketing, sales) sit at the lower end.

Methodology

• Data base: 15.1m AOK-insured employees (reporting year 2023)
• Occupational classification per KldB 2010, sick-leave data from AOK
• Case duration = days per AU case with burnout diagnosis (ICD-10 Z73)
• Values rounded to one decimal, no 95 % confidence interval