City ranking shows where it is good to live

Almost a third of the German population lives in Germany's major cities. They compete with each other for prosperity, quality of life and economic development. On behalf of WirtschaftsWoche and ImmobilienScout24, the Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft Köln (Cologne Institute for the German Economy) once again took a close look at Germany's 71 independent cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants.

The annual city ranking distinguishes between the three categories of level ranking, dynamic ranking and sustainability index. As expected, there were again shifts in comparison to previous years. More than 100 indicators from the areas of economic structure, labour market, real estate market, quality of life and sustainability were included in the evaluation.

The dynamic ranking analyses which cities have developed best over the past five years. This makes it possible to show which city is developing favourably, regardless of its economic starting position. The sustainability ranking is based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals and analyses the economic, ecological and social sustainability of the city. Since the positive development of a location does not remain without effects on real estate prices, a comprehensive rent and purchase price analysis complements the city ranking.

The detailed results are available at www.iwconsult.de/aktuelles/projekte/staedteranking-2022.

Cities not only offer housing, work and culture, but are also home to companies, research institutes and specialised service providers. While large international companies have settled mainly in the west and south of the country since reunification, eastern German metropolitan regions have been scoring points in recent years.

Halle an der Saale and Leipzig, which perform very well in the dynamics ranking, end up in the top20 in the real estate market. Rostock, which made the biggest climb in the dynamics ranking, even made it into the top10 in the real estate market. A similarly positive development of the property market is also to be expected in Magdeburg. Munich is again ahead in the overall ranking.

(Photo: © Falco, Pixabay)