The HWWI/Berenberg city rankings have a new number one: Berlin leads the field of the 30 largest cities in Germany for the first time. That puts three East German cities into the Top 10: Leipzig again comes second in the overall rankings and Dresden climbs to seventh place. Munich is showing the first limits to its growth: The Bavarian state capital is not growing as dynamically as in the past and slips to 3rd place.
The cities were analysed with regard to their current economic performance (trend index), their future demographic developments (demographic index) and key location factors like education, innovation, internationality and accessibility (location index).
Leipzig leads the trend index
As in the previous rankings, Leipzig leads the trend index followed by Berlin and Cologne in 2nd and 3rd place. In the overall rankings, Leipzig maintained second place, only narrowly missing out on first. In recent years, no other city has improved its economic performance as dynamically as Saxony's largest city. At just under 7%, it also saw the largest population growth of any of the 30 cities in the last few years. This trend will continue, as Leipzig leads the field in population forecasts through to 2030, especially among the under-20s and working people.
The excellent developments in the trend and demographic indexes are so strong that for years they have more than compensated for Leipzig's poorer showing in the location index. According to the study, there is clear potential for improvement in the location factors of education and innovation, internationality and accessibility.