For anyone relocating to Freiburg (Freiburg im Breisgau) from overseas, here is the data that matters before you commit: income, jobs, housing, connectivity, taxes and who lives here, straight from German Regionalstatistik, the Zensus 2022 and the Breitbandatlas.
Freiburg is a city through and through, and it behaves like one on every measure below. What jumps out is the rent: the 3rd most expensive of Baden-Württemberg’s 44 districts.
How Freiburg compares
Where Freiburg ranks against all 400 of Germany’s districts (Kreise); building-land prices are recorded for 394 of them. Each bar fills to the percentile shown; hover for the underlying figure.
Freiburg beyond the figures
Freiburg is a university town at the edge of the Black Forest, and the university, founded in 1457, is the largest employer along with its teaching hospital. The city’s distinguishing industry is solar and environmental research — the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems here is the largest solar research institute in Europe — and an ecological politics that goes back to the anti-nuclear movement of the 1970s and is now simply how the city runs. The Vauban district, built on a former French barracks, is one of the most studied low-energy neighbourhoods in the world.
It is also, by most reckonings, the sunniest and warmest city in Germany, sitting in the Rhine valley with the forest rising immediately behind it. Switzerland and France are both within an hour; Basel and its airport are closer than any large German city.
The city is small, walkable and heavily cycled, with the Bächle — narrow water channels — running along the old streets. The minster survived the war largely intact, which is rare.
Neighbourhoods: the Altstadt and Wiehre are the beautiful and expensive centre. Vauban and Rieselfeld are the planned ecological districts, popular with families. Stühlinger and Herdern sit in between. The honest caveat is the price. Freiburg has some of the highest rents in Germany relative to local incomes, because a small city with a big university and a strong quality-of-life reputation cannot build fast enough. The job market outside the university, the hospital and the research institutes is thin.
Jobs and the economy
11% below DE avg
More people work in Freiburg than its size suggests. It holds 141,677 jobs at local workplaces in 2025, 597 for every 1,000 residents, the kind of ratio you only get where commuters pour in each morning rather than out. Those jobs are spread across 11,981 registered businesses (2024), a rough measure of how varied the local employers are. The local jobless rate is 5.6% in 2025 (German average 6.3%), roughly one in 18 of the local workforce.
Full-time employees living here take home a median gross wage of €4,300 a month (9% above the German median of €3,950), before tax and contributions. This is a different measure from the disposable income per resident above: it is what people in work earn, not what each resident has left to spend. Source: Bundesagentur für Arbeit, 2024.
Cost of living and housing
34% above DE avg
5% below DE avg
Be ready for the rent: this is one of the pricier places to live. Net cold rent (Nettokaltmiete) averages €9.74 per m² here, about 34% above the German average of €7.28. It reflects existing tenancies from the 2022 census; expect to pay above it on a new contract. Disposable income per resident runs to €27,158 (234th highest of 400 German districts, 42nd in Baden-Württemberg). That sits roughly 5% below the national average of €28,453. On its own that number tells half the story; the local cost of living does the rest. Building plots go for around €593 per m², the 25th highest of 394 districts with a recorded price, the starting price of the ground itself, beneath every local rent. For scale, the median district nationally sits near €132 per m². At €9.74/m², a 70 m² flat works out to about €682 a month in cold rent (existing-tenancy 2022 level; a new lease costs more). Relative to what people here earn, it is the priciest place to rent in Baden-Württemberg. By comparison, rent here is roughly 94% of Stuttgart’s (€10.39/m²). You pay up to live here, and in return the work is on your doorstep.
The local housing market
What you are renting into, on the 2022 census: 72.4% of homes are rented rather than owner-occupied; the vacancy rate is 2.4% (a tight market); the average home measures 81 m². At that vacancy rate viewings get crowded, so have your paperwork ready before you turn up. The stock is 119,704 homes in 27,061 buildings, about 4.4 per building, so this is dominated by apartment blocks. In the latest year 73 new dwellings were completed against 52 permits, a gauge of whether new supply keeps up with demand.
Who lives in Freiburg
Ages and household composition, as recorded by the 2022 census.
Age distribution
This is a young, working-age place. 31.9% of residents are aged 25 to 45, the age group most newcomers belong to, with 13.3% under 15 and 17.8% at 65 or older. The 2022 census fills in the rest: 27.4% of residents have a migration history (17.2% are foreign nationals); 48.5% of households are single-person; 56.9% of adults hold an Abitur / university-entrance qualification. A fair international presence to lean on while you find your feet. School rolls come to 25,960 pupils. Childcare availability climbs with age: about 4.5% of under-1s, 59.6% of 1 to 2 year olds and 82.4% of 2 to 3 year olds have a place, so finding care for an infant is harder than for a toddler.
Internet & connectivity
The share of homes able to get each speed (Breitbandatlas, end of 2025). Gigabit may come via fibre or upgraded cable; true fibre (FTTB/H) is listed on its own.
A fixed line of 100 Mbit/s or better is available to 98% of households, and 91% can reach gigabit (1,000 Mbit/s) speeds (Breitbandatlas, end of 2025). Only part of that is fibre: 59% of households can get FTTB/H, and upgraded cable carries the rest. On mobile, 5G reaches 100% of households. Working remotely as a newcomer is straightforward; the connection is rarely the problem here.
Where Freiburg is in Germany
Recorded crime
The local rate of recorded offences, per 100,000 residents.
The local rate is 9,631 recorded offences per 100,000 residents (2025, the Häufigkeitszahl), 89% above the German district median of about 5,096. This counts offences registered by the police, not convictions, and is inflated wherever offenders and victims are not residents: city centres, major stations, motorways and airports all push it up. It reflects recorded activity in the area, not how dangerous the place is for the people who live there. Source: Polizeiliche Kriminalstatistik, BKA 2025.
Local taxes
Unless you start a business, local tax is a footnote here. The trade-tax multiplier (Gewerbesteuer) is 430%, but it only touches you if you register a business: the tax office sets a base amount, the municipality multiplies it. The property tax (Grundsteuer B) reaches you as a tenant through the service charges (Nebenkosten), and it was reset in the 2025 reform, so there is no settled rate to quote yet.
Moving in and out
growing
Freiburg is growing. In 2024, 22,053 moved in and 20,902 moved out, a net of +1,151. Arrivals outnumber departures, so the rental market stays tight. In 2024 the district naturalised 528 residents, a naturalisation rate of 1.2%. Around 7,265 residents hold or are seeking protection status, about 30.6 per 1,000 residents, the combined asylum, refugee and humanitarian total, with Ukrainians counted here since 2022. Turnout at the most recent election was 85.7%.
Just arrived in Freiburg? Sort these first
In a city like Freiburg, the practical stuff (internet, banking, a SIM) is easier arranged early than scrambled for on arrival.
FAQ: relocating to Freiburg
What is the job market like in Freiburg?
There are 141,677 jobs at workplaces in Freiburg, 597 for every 1,000 residents once commuters are counted, with unemployment at 5.6%, roughly one in 18 of the local workforce, against 6.3% across Germany.
Is Freiburg expensive to live in?
Net cold rent averages €9.74 per m², 34% above the German average of €7.28. That is the 2022 census level for sitting tenants; a new contract costs more. Disposable income per resident is €27,158 (234th highest of 400 German districts, 42nd in Baden-Württemberg). That sits roughly 5% below the national average of €28,453. Remember it is a nominal figure and ignores what life actually costs here.
How built-up is Freiburg?
With about 1,552 residents per km², Freiburg is a dense, urban place.
Is Freiburg gaining or losing people?
Freiburg is gaining residents: over a year 22,053 people moved in and 20,902 moved out, a net of +1,151, about 0.5% of the population in a year.
Will broadband in Freiburg support remote work?
98% of households can get a fixed line of at least 100 Mbit/s, 91% gigabit of which 59% true fibre (FTTB/H); 5G mobile reaches 100% (Breitbandatlas, end of 2025), so the connection is rarely the issue for home working.
Other places in Baden-Württemberg
Source: Regionaldatenbank Deutschland (regionalstatistik.de), Statistische Ämter des Bundes und der Länder; supplementary data via Destatis GENESIS-Online. Housing, household, education and migration figures from the Zensus 2022. Broadband coverage from the Breitbandatlas (© MIG, BMDV). Recorded crime from the Polizeiliche Kriminalstatistik (BKA, 2025). Median full-time gross wages from the Bundesagentur für Arbeit (2024). Years per field: population 2024, jobs and unemployment 2025, income 2023, businesses, building activity and land 2024, naturalisations 2024, childcare 2025; rent, vacancy, ownership, dwelling size, single-person households, education and migration 2022 (Zensus); broadband end of 2025 (Breitbandatlas). · How we built this ›