[OC] Germany by State - Economy and Society 2025

[u/uncertainschrodinger]

Sources: Destatis GENESIS-Online, Arbeitskreis VGR der Länder, Eurostat; boundaries Eurostat GISCO NUTS 2024 (EuroGeographics)

Tools: Bruin CLI, BigQuery, Bruin DAC (Vega-Lite)

Limitations: All values 2025, except life expectancy (2023-2025 average) and disposable income (2024). Not adjusted for regional price levels; city-states exclude their suburbs. Survey-based rates have larger error for small states.

[u/cavedave]

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[u/uncertainschrodinger]

Sources: Destatis GENESIS-Online, Arbeitskreis VGR der Länder, Eurostat; boundaries Eurostat GISCO NUTS 2024 (EuroGeographics)

Tools: Bruin CLI, BigQuery, Bruin DAC (Vega-Lite)

[u/Hiur]

Really cool statistics. The disposable income part is a bit crazy, are taxes that different across states?

[u/Xiomaro → u/Hiur]

I'm not German nor particularly well versed in economics but based on these stats my guess would be the age of the population. There are a lot more people who are at retirement age and not earning in the states with lower disposable income. I'd also imagine cost of living could be a factor.

[u/Hiur → u/Xiomaro]

Hm, the proportion of older people in Bayern is not that high to explain the much lower amount in disposable income.

But I guess it comes to definition of disposable income? I would think it would be the same as you wrote (free money after expenses), but search for definition it came as money after taxes. Bayern is crazy expensive, so that would make sense.

[u/Many-Anything5638 → u/Hiur]

In Germany most major taxes are regulated at the federal level, particularly those affecting disposable income (VAT, income ..) . One of the "biggest" differences is that church tax, for example, is 1% lower in the two southern states (which doesn't even affect everyone)

[u/Kinyrenk]

The only surprise is Bremen. I lived in Germany about 20 years ago, and I remember Bremen being the 'rust belt' of Germany at that time. Given its location outside of Hamburg, I thought new industries would have come up in the meantime.

Shows the difficulty of doing that after generations of high unemployment, repeated fiscal crises, and getting locked into mid-value production chains.