If you are moving to Nuremberg (Nürnberg) from abroad, here is what you would actually be arriving into, on the official numbers: income, jobs, housing, connectivity, taxes and who already lives here. Every figure comes from German Regionalstatistik, the Zensus 2022 and the Breitbandatlas, not guesswork.
Nuremberg is a city through and through, and it behaves like one on every measure below. Pricey ground stands out: the 4th priciest for building land of Bavaria’s 96 districts.
How Nuremberg compares
Nuremberg measured against all 400 German districts (Kreise); building-land prices are recorded for 394 of them. The longer the bar, the higher the percentile; hover for the figure behind it.
Why expats end up in Nuremberg
Nuremberg anchors a metropolitan region that runs into Fürth and Erlangen and functions as one labour market. The city itself carries Datev, one of Germany’s largest software cooperatives, the market researcher GfK, the federal employment agency’s head office, and a long manufacturing tradition; Siemens Healthineers is next door in Erlangen and is one of the region’s largest employers. It is a solid, mid-sized, engineering-and-services economy with wages a little below Munich’s and rents a long way below them.
The city carries its history openly. It was the site of the Nazi party rallies and then of the trials that followed the war, and both the rally grounds and the courtroom are now museums that treat the subject directly rather than quietly. The rebuilt medieval centre, the castle and the Christmas market are the other face of the place.
Practically, Nuremberg is unusually well connected for its size: the airport is about twelve minutes from the centre on the U-Bahn, Munich is an hour by ICE and Berlin around three. Franconia has its own identity, dialect and beer culture, and locals will correct you if you call them Bavarian.
Neighbourhoods: Gostenhof is the young, mixed, increasingly fashionable district. St. Johannis and Erlenstegen are the quiet, well-off ones. The Südstadt is cheaper and more diverse. Nearby Fürth is a separate city that functions as an affordable extension. The honest caveat: the international scene is small compared with Munich or Frankfurt, and English will get you further at work than it will at the town hall.
Jobs and the economy
16% above DE avg
Nuremberg is a net importer of workers. It holds 320,595 jobs at local workplaces in 2025, 606 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 25,750 registered businesses (2024), a sense of how broad the employer base is. Unemployment came in at 7.3% in 2025 (German average 6.3%), roughly one in 14 of the local workforce.
The median full-time worker here earns €4,050 a month gross (3% above the German median of €3,950), before tax and social contributions. It is not the same as the disposable income above: that is per resident after tax and transfers, this is gross pay for those in work. Source: Bundesagentur für Arbeit, 2024.
Cost of living and housing
13% above DE avg
4% below DE avg
The average net cold rent (Nettokaltmiete) is €8.21 per m², about 13% 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 comes to €27,201 (232nd highest of 400 German districts, 89th in Bavaria). That sits roughly 4% 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 €865 per m², the 11th highest of 394 districts with a recorded price, the starting price of the ground itself, beneath every local rent. Half of Germany’s districts come in under about €132 per m². For a 70 m² flat that is around €575 a month in cold rent at €8.21/m² — an existing tenancy in 2022; budget above it for a new lease. Against local incomes, that ranks 86th most affordable of Bavaria’s 96 districts. By comparison, rent here is roughly 64% of Munich’s (€12.89/m²).
The local housing market
Here is the shape of the market, from the 2022 census: 71.7% of homes are rented rather than owner-occupied; the vacancy rate is 3.1% (roughly in balance); the average home measures 78 m². The stock is 288,356 homes in 72,861 buildings, about 4 per building, so this is very much flats over houses. In the latest year 235 new dwellings were completed against 275 permits, which hints at how much new housing is actually coming through.
Who lives in Nuremberg
Who lives here, by age and household type, on the 2022 census.
Age distribution
The age mix here leans young and working-age. 29.6% of residents are aged 25 to 45, the age group most newcomers belong to, with 13.4% under 15 and 20.2% at 65 or older. The 2022 census fills in the rest: 37.9% of residents have a migration history (24.2% are foreign nationals); 51.3% of households are single-person; 37.4% of adults hold an Abitur / university-entrance qualification. If you are relocating from another country, you would be in plenty of company day to day. School rolls come to 51,713 pupils. Daycare places get easier to find as children get older: about 2.4% of under-1s, 35.7% of 1 to 2 year olds and 59.7% of 2 to 3 year olds have a place, so a place for a baby is the hard part, much less so for a toddler.
Internet & connectivity
How many households can reach each speed (Breitbandatlas, end of 2025). Gigabit can arrive over fibre or upgraded cable; true fibre (FTTB/H) is broken out separately.
99% of households are within reach of at least 100 Mbit/s on a fixed line, and 90% can reach gigabit (1,000 Mbit/s) speeds (Breitbandatlas, end of 2025). Only part of that is fibre: 41% of households can get FTTB/H, and upgraded cable carries the rest. On mobile, 5G reaches 100% of households. If you are keeping a job abroad, a home office works at most addresses here.
Where Nuremberg is in Germany
Recorded crime
The local rate of recorded offences, per 100,000 residents.
In 2025 the police logged 7,206 offences per 100,000 residents here (the Häufigkeitszahl), 41% above the German district median of about 5,096. These are police-recorded cases, not convictions; transit hubs, motorways and busy centres lift the figure because much of it involves visitors rather than locals. It is not a verdict on how safe the area is to live in. Source: Polizeiliche Kriminalstatistik, BKA 2025.
Local taxes
Unless you start a business, local tax is a footnote here. The municipality applies a trade-tax multiplier (Gewerbesteuer) of 467% to the base amount the tax office sets, which matters only if you trade under your own name here. 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
Nuremberg is growing. In 2024, 42,489 people registered an address here and 38,663 deregistered, leaving +3,826. Arrivals outnumber departures, so the rental market stays tight. 3,837 people were naturalised here in 2024, a naturalisation rate of 2.8%. Some 24,200 people here hold or are seeking protection status, about 45.7 per 1,000 residents, the combined asylum, refugee and humanitarian total, with Ukrainians counted here since 2022. Turnout at the most recent election was 79.3%.
Just arrived in Nuremberg? Sort these first
Nuremberg sees a lot of churn, so internet hook-ups and bank appointments book out quickly. Sort the essentials before you land.
FAQ: relocating to Nuremberg
What does it cost to live in Nuremberg?
The average net cold rent is €8.21 per m² (13% above the €7.28 German average), from existing 2022 tenancies, so a new lease runs higher. Disposable income per resident is €27,201 (232nd highest of 400 German districts, 89th in Bavaria). That sits roughly 4% below the national average of €28,453. It is not adjusted for local prices, so treat it as a headline only.
What is the job market like in Nuremberg?
Nuremberg has 320,595 jobs (606 per 1,000 residents, including commuters) and 7.3% unemployment, roughly one in 14 of the local workforce, against 6.3% across Germany.
Is Nuremberg a city or more rural?
With about 2,840 residents per km², Nuremberg is a built-up, urban area.
Where does Nuremberg stand versus the German average?
Compared with Germany overall: unemployment 7.3% versus 6.3% nationally; income €27,201 (4% below the €28,453 average); building land €865/m² against a €132 median.
Will broadband in Nuremberg support remote work?
99% of households can get a fixed line of at least 100 Mbit/s, 90% gigabit of which 41% true fibre (FTTB/H); 5G mobile reaches 100% (Breitbandatlas, end of 2025), so a home office works at most addresses here.
Other cities in Germany
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 ›