Prognos City Ranking 2024 | City of Munich

Where life is particularly good

Munich has once again proven that it is one of the most livable cities in Germany. According to the latest City Ranking 2024, compiled by the renowned economic institute PROGNOS for Handelsblatt, the Bavarian capital came in second place.

The study analyses which German cities already offer a high quality of life and which are best equipped to meet the challenges that urban areas are facing.

68 independent cities and three urban regions with more than 100,000 inhabitants were examined and evaluated according to 28 criteria in the five categories of ecology, mobility, social affairs, digitalisation and work. For each city, not only the status quo was depicted (most recent available data), but also the dynamics (development from an earlier point in time to the most recent point in time).

Munich's qualities

Munich came second in the overall ranking, behind Ulm and ahead of Ingolstadt. The city scored particularly well in the status quo category, achieving second place in this sub-ranking as well.

Overall, cities from southern and eastern Germany dominate the ranking: nine of the top 10 cities are located in the south or east of the country, with the top five places going to cities in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria: Following Ulm and Munich are Ingolstadt, Erlangen, and Regensburg.

Another finding of the study: small "big cities" perform very well in comparison: Of the four German cities with over a million inhabitants, only two are in the top 10.

Panoramabild von München © München Tourismus

Photo: München Tourismus

Prognos "City Ranking and Future Atlas"

The city ranking complements the perspective of the Prognos Future Atlas, which analyses the economic future viability of German regions every three years.

In the Future Atlas 2022, the district of Munich took first place in the ranking with the best future prospects. The city of Munich was in third place behind Erlangen.