Many Munich residents have always known: Munich is the best city in Germany. Now the renowned WirtschaftsWoche magazine is singing the same tune. What's behind it?
Munich is Germany's best city – at least that is what WirtschaftsWoche, Immobilienscout24 and the Cologne Institute for Economic Research claim in this year’s edition of their City rankings.
The 2016 city ranking examines the absolute economic power, the economic dynamism as well as the Future perspective of all 69 independent cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants.
The city ranking in detail
From 53 individual indicators, the study authors calculate a value for the current economic strengthMunich leads this ranking for the thirteenth year in a row, followed by Erlangen and Ingolstadt. Frankfurt ranks fourth, Hamburg tenth, and Berlin 39th.
The economic dynamism is evaluated based on the change in 40 indicators over the past five years. Munich improved seven places compared to the previous year and once again takes the top spot, ahead of Ingolstadt and Würzburg. Berlin follows in 9th place, Frankfurt in 13th, and Hamburg in 22nd.
For the first time in the study's thirteen-year history, one city, Munich, dominates both of these rankings. Further good news for the region and the state: Bavarian cities occupy the top three places in economic power and even occupy the top five positions in dynamism.
The third dimension evaluates the Future opportunities of cities with 13 individual indicators. Munich ranks third here, after Darmstadt and Erlangen. Gregor Peter Schmitz, head of the capital office of WirtschaftsWoche, comments:
"Munich is exceptional in everything: in terms of quality of life, the job market, rents and purchase prices for apartments, but above all in terms of highly and highly qualified people. That's why the Isar metropolis is even more uniquely at the top this year."
Success also creates problems
Overall, the study reflects Munich's well-known positive development. At the same time, the downside of this success, with its high rents, is no secret. WirtschaftsWoche quoted Christian Schmidkonz, economist at the Munich Business School, also believes that the greatest challenge for urban policy is to ensure social compatibility in the future.
