Relocating to Gießen from another country? This is what a newcomer is moving into, on the official figures: income, jobs, housing, connectivity, taxes and who lives here, all drawn from German Regionalstatistik, the Zensus 2022 and the Breitbandatlas.
Gießen has the feel of a university district: young, and well-qualified on paper. Earnings are on the low side, among the lowest-income in Hesse.
How Gießen compares
Where Gießen 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.
See how Gießen stacks up across Hesse: Cheapest to rent · Safest · Best for families.
Who lives in Gießen
Age profile and household make-up from the 2022 census.
Age distribution
27.9% of residents are aged 25 to 45, the age group most newcomers belong to, with 13.7% under 15 and 20.9% at 65 or older. The 2022 census fills in the rest: 26.2% of residents have a migration history (13.3% are foreign nationals); 44.9% of households are single-person; 41.5% of adults hold an Abitur / university-entrance qualification. There is a real international community to plug into, even if German still runs daily life. There are 29,089 pupils in local schools. Daycare coverage rises with age: about 2.4% of under-1s, 38.6% of 1 to 2 year olds and 64.3% 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.
Cost of living and housing
2% above DE avg
11% below DE avg
Building plots go for around €126 per m², the 205th highest of 394 districts with a recorded price, the bare ground before a brick is laid and the floor under every local rent. The median German district is around €132 per m². The average net cold rent (Nettokaltmiete) is €7.42 per m², about 2% above the German average of €7.28. That is the 2022 census figure for tenants already in place, so a fresh lease on the open market usually costs more. Disposable income per resident runs to €25,443 (335th highest of 400 German districts, 24th in Hesse). That is about 11% below the German average of €28,453. On its own that number tells half the story; the local cost of living does the rest. At €7.42/m², a 70 m² flat works out to about €519 a month in cold rent (existing-tenancy 2022 level; a new lease costs more). Measured against local incomes, it sits 22nd most affordable in Hesse. For scale, that is about 70% of the rent in Frankfurt (€10.58/m²).
The local housing market
The 2022 census sketches the local stock: 53.8% of homes are rented rather than owner-occupied; the vacancy rate is 3.9% (neither tight nor slack); the average home measures 99 m². The stock is 138,371 homes in 64,664 buildings, about 2.1 per building, so this is house-heavy rather than high-rise. In the latest year 249 new dwellings were completed against 160 permits, which hints at how much new housing is actually coming through.
Jobs and the economy
2% below DE avg
Jobs and people are in rough balance in Gießen: 107,247 jobs at local workplaces in 2025, 400 per 1,000 residents. Those jobs are spread across 12,001 registered businesses (2024), a sense of how broad the employer base is. Unemployment stands at 6.2% in 2025 (German average 6.3%), roughly one in 16 of the local workforce.
Full-time employees living here take home a median gross wage of €4,100 a month (4% above the German median of €3,950), before tax and contributions. Read it alongside, not instead of, the disposable income above: one is gross pay for workers, the other is what each resident has to spend. Source: Bundesagentur für Arbeit, 2024.
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.
96% of households can get a fixed line of at least 100 Mbit/s, and 77% can reach gigabit (1,000 Mbit/s) speeds (Breitbandatlas, end of 2025). Of that, 37% of households can get true fibre to the building (FTTB/H); the rest of the gigabit coverage runs over upgraded cable. On mobile, 5G reaches 100% of households. For remote work, including for an overseas employer, most addresses here are well covered.
Where Gießen is in Germany
Recorded crime
How much crime the police registered locally, per 100,000 residents.
Police recorded 6,845 offences per 100,000 residents in 2025 (the Häufigkeitszahl), 34% 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
For most people moving here, local tax is a non-event. The trade-tax multiplier (Gewerbesteuer) is 409%, 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
Gießen is gaining people. In 2024, 37,263 moved in and 36,289 moved out, a net of +974. More arrive than leave, which keeps steady pressure on the rental market. 780 people were naturalised here in 2024, a naturalisation rate of 2.0%. Some 21,695 people here hold or are seeking protection status, about 80.8 per 1,000 residents, the combined asylum, refugee and humanitarian total, with Ukrainians counted here since 2022. Turnout at the most recent election was 83.4%.
Just arrived in Gießen? Sort these first
As a more rural district, at about 314 people per km², Gießen all but needs a car. Line up insurance and a bank account before you arrive.
FAQ: relocating to Gießen
How expensive is Gießen to live in?
The average net cold rent is €7.42 per m² (2% above the €7.28 German average), from existing 2022 tenancies, so a new lease runs higher. Disposable income per resident is €25,443 (335th highest of 400 German districts, 24th in Hesse). That is about 11% below the German average of €28,453. Building land is around €126 per m², which feeds into local rents. This figure is nominal, not adjusted for the local cost of living.
How are job prospects in Gießen?
Gießen has 107,247 jobs (400 per 1,000 residents, including commuters) and 6.2% unemployment, roughly one in 16 of the local workforce, against 6.3% across Germany.
Is the internet good enough to work from home in Gießen?
96% of households can get a fixed line of at least 100 Mbit/s, 77% gigabit of which 37% true fibre (FTTB/H); 5G mobile reaches 100% (Breitbandatlas, end of 2025), so a home office works at most addresses here.
Is a car necessary in Gießen?
Gießen has about 314 residents per km². At that spread, most people need a car day to day.
What does building land cost in Gießen?
Building land costs around €126 per m² here. The median German district is around €132 per m². That is the bare ground, before anything is built on it.
Other places in Hessen
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 ›