Cities Ranking: Why you have to move to Darmstadt

The German city of the future is not located on the Spree, the Isar or the Elbe - according to the current city ranking of the "WirtschaftsWoche" and the portal Immobilienscout24 Darmstadt is the German city of the future. The company IW Consult of the employer-related institute of the German economy in Cologne compared economic situation, change rates of certain indicators as well as future prospects of 71 district-free cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants on the basis level, dynamics and future.

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Munich Marienplatz

A total of more than 100 factors from areas such as quality of life, labor market, real estate, research strength, industry of the future and economic structure were analyzed for ranking. It shows: Particularly well-established cities can be found especially in the southern half of Germany, cities from the Ruhr area, however, have it particularly difficult. "The dominance of the South is very clear - in all areas - breaking down the consideration to the regional level makes this even clearer," says Hanno Kempermann, Head of Sectors and Regions, of IW Consult.

In terms of economic power, however, Wolfsburg has replaced series winner Munich, which had previously landed on the winners' podium for five consecutive years. The Bavarian state capital occupies third place this year, even behind Stuttgart. Berlin lands

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VW plants in Wolfsburg

rank 35, Hamburg rank 9, Cologne is 13. The economic power takes into account such indicators as the gross domestic product per inhabitant, trade tax rates or the start-up intensity.

With regard to the square meter prices surprised the top spot of Munich in the real estate market ranking. However, according to Kempermann, a popular housing market is an indicator of the attractiveness of a region. "The people who come to Munich, then want to afford it," said the expert.

Berlin is becoming more dynamic

Munich is also ahead of the urban dynamics of the past five years, followed by Berlin and Ingolstadt. While Berlin was able to move forward significantly in the past year, the capital only made up one place this year and finished second. A big leap forward was made by Wolfsburg, which improved eleven places to fifth in the lead. Kempermann mentions as a reason for the quantum leap the temporary collapse of the trade tax due to the exhaust gas scandal at Volkswagen. The last three places are occupied by Herne, Gelsenkirchen and Salzgitter.

The dynamic ranking looks at developments over the past five years, for example in construction activities. This is to make it clear which city - irrespective of the economic starting point - has moved up (or down).

Darmstadt, Erlangen and Stuttgart as "cities of the future"

* Methodological note: The weighting is based on how strongly the indicators affect the target variables of high employment and wealth. The numbers are rounded, which can lead to the same score at different ranks. The ranking follows a points system that also takes into account relative differences. Means: Who is in front of some areas, but far behind in others, so occupied rather rear ranks.

The future index, which has been raised since 2015, repeatedly convinces a city that only a few are likely to have on the list: Darmstadt. "Darmstadt unites the uncanny innovation of the local players on the ground," says Kempermann. The South Hessian city of science was convincing with topics such as innovation, creativity and digitization. Among the 13 indicators used in the ranking were broadband coverage, the frequency of patent applications and research institutes, the high school graduation rate, the proportion of highly qualified workers and the number of employees in future industries. Behind Darmstadt also Erlangen and Stuttgart convinced. Berlin finished in 14th place, as in the previous year, and Hamburg and Cologne did not reach the top ten. Munich came in fourth. With Hamm, Duisburg and Bottrop, only cities from the Ruhr met the rear seats.

City ranking 2018

The 71 largest independent cities

Source: IW Consult