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The total debt of the 76 major German cities will decrease – in 2017 by 1.7 percent to 81.6 billion euros. Cities in Bavaria and eastern Germany are primarily responsible for this positive development. This is shown by a study by the examination and consulting company EY (Ernst & Young).
“The overall slightly positive development in municipal debt should not hide the fact that many cities, particularly in western Germany, have their backs to the wall,” said Bernhard Lorentz, partner at EY. Many cities, especially from Lower Saxony, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia, reported increasing total debt.
For the study, EY analyzed the total and per capita debt of the 76 German cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants – with the exception of the three city-states Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen. As a result, especially the Ruhr area with its structurally weak municipalities does poorly. This is also shown by a look at the top 10 major German cities with the highest per capita debt in 2017:
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# 10 Moers
The 104,000-inhabitant city of Moers comes in tenth place on the western edge of the Ruhr area in North Rhine-Westphalia. It has stood out for years due to increasing per capita debt. In 2007 it was 3224 euros, in 2017 this value more than doubled to 6811 euros.
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# 9 Duisburg
Duisburg took ninth place, also in North Rhine-Westphalia. Almost 500,000 people live in the city with the largest inland port in the world. Although massive savings have been made here for years, the per capita debt is 6901 euros.
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# 8 Remscheid
Eighth place also comes from North Rhine-Westphalia. Remscheid has been a major city since 1929, and the city in the Bergisches Land currently has around 110,000 inhabitants. Although she has managed to reduce debt since 2016, the per capita debt is still € 7,144.
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@Pixabay
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# 7 Offenbach
In 2017, the total debt of large cities in Hesse rose by 0.8 percent. The fifth largest city in the state, Offenbach, also has to deal with high debts of € 7,587 per capita. From 2020, however, the city should implement a balanced financial budget.
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@dpa
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# 6 Hagen
Hagen in North Rhine-Westphalia is best known for the only state long-distance university in Germany. Here too, the income is insufficient to cover municipal expenditure. The approximately 187,000 inhabitants have a debt of 7,833 euros per capita.
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# 5 Trier
Trier in the Rhineland-Palatinate is the oldest city in Germany and in 2017 also the city with the fifth highest per capita debt. Although tax revenues have been increasing for years, each of the approximately 110,000 inhabitants bears municipal debts of 7,853 euros.
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@Pixabay
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# 4 Ludwigshafen on the Rhine
Around ten percent of the Rhineland-Palatinate’s gross domestic product is generated in Ludwigshafen am Rhein. Nevertheless, the city of 170,000 has a loss-making budget. In 2017, per capita debt was 8243 euros.
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@Pixabay
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# 3 Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken is the only state capital among the ten major German cities with the highest debt. The city of 180,000 inhabitants already took third place in 2016. Since then, the debt has dropped minimally: from 8,825 euros to 8,806 euros per capita.
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# 2 Oberhausen
Still in first place in 2016, the debt of the 210,000-inhabitant city of Oberhausen in the Ruhr area has now improved somewhat. Per capita debt fell from 9680 euros to 9663 euros. The causes of the loss-making budget include the high costs of child and youth welfare and high unemployment.
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@Wikipedia
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# 1 Mülheim an der Ruhr
The leader among the large cities in debt also comes from the structurally weak Ruhr area. In 2016, the city of Mülheim an der Ruhr with 180,000 inhabitants took second place with a per capita debt of EUR 9163. In 2017, this value rose to 9791 euros. This increased per capita debt by a whopping 43 percent between 2012 and 2017.
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