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This presentation shall analyze the development of the socioeconomic participation of the Non-German population in Germany during the past 30 years. Evaluations specific for nationality will be introduced for the period from 1973 to 2004 using the German Micro Census. For the analysis of the development of purchasing power differences and income inequality the Big Mac index as well as the Coefficient of Variation and the Gini Coefficient shall be applied.

The results highlight that in general the income inequality is steady in Germany over the past 30 years. Merely between the years 1999 and 2004 the Gini coefficient rises about three percent points. The evaluations concerning nationality prove an increase especially of the income inequality of the households from EU countries up to the level of German households, while households from non-EU countries maintain a clearly lower level of the income inequality. The average income of households from non-EU countries in 2004 is about 1620 euros, households from EU countries earn 1850 euros and German households achieve 2140 euros.

In addition to the presentation of the results, challenges concerning the data handling are discussed. A critical area is the procedure of data aggregation of large data sets using STATA and the calculation e.g. of the GINI coefficient using up to 8 Mio. cases simultaneously.