Relocating to Offenbach am Main 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.
Offenbach am Main is a city through and through, and it behaves like one on every measure below. Earnings are on the low side, the lowest-income of Hesse’s 26 districts.
How Offenbach am Main compares
How Offenbach am Main sits among Germany’s 400 districts (Kreise); building-land prices are recorded for 394 of them. Each bar shows the percentile; hover for the underlying figure.
See how Offenbach am Main stacks up across Hesse: Cheapest to rent · Safest · Best for families.
Jobs and the economy
52% above DE avg
Work and residents are fairly evenly matched in Offenbach am Main: 52,228 jobs at local workplaces in 2025, 393 per 1,000 residents. Those jobs are spread across 6,624 registered businesses (2024), a sense of how broad the employer base is. Unemployment stands at 9.6% in 2025 (German average 6.3%), roughly one in 10 of the local workforce.
The median full-time worker here earns €3,800 a month gross (4% below 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
20% above DE avg
20% below DE avg
Be ready for the rent: this is one of the pricier places to live. The average net cold rent (Nettokaltmiete) is €8.76 per m², about 20% 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 €22,823 (393rd highest of 400 German districts, 26th in Hesse). That is about 20% below the German average of €28,453. Bear in mind it is nominal: it says nothing about what rent and daily life cost here. Building plots go for around €880 per m², the 10th 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. At €8.76/m², a 70 m² flat works out to about €613 a month in cold rent (existing-tenancy 2022 level; a new lease costs more). Measured against local incomes, no district in Hesse rents less affordably. By comparison, rent here is roughly 83% of Frankfurt’s (€10.58/m²).
The local housing market
What you are renting into, on the 2022 census: 77.6% of homes are rented rather than owner-occupied; the vacancy rate is 3.7% (roughly in balance); the average home measures 75 m². The stock is 68,058 homes in 14,374 buildings, about 4.7 per building, so this is very much flats over houses. In the latest year 47 new dwellings were completed against 37 permits, a gauge of whether new supply keeps up with demand.
Who lives in Offenbach am Main
Age profile and household make-up from the 2022 census.
Age distribution
This is a comparatively youthful district. 31.6% of residents are aged 25 to 45, the bracket most relocations fall into, with 15.1% under 15 and 16.1% at 65 or older. The 2022 census fills in the rest: 50.1% of residents have a migration history (37.9% are foreign nationals); 49.9% of households are single-person; 38.7% of adults hold an Abitur / university-entrance qualification. As a newcomer from abroad you would blend straight in; this is a properly international place. There are 15,553 pupils in local schools. Daycare places get easier to find as children get older: about 1.6% of under-1s, 32.0% of 1 to 2 year olds and 55.5% of 2 to 3 year olds have a place, meaning infants are the squeeze and toddlers far less so.
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 can get a fixed line of at least 100 Mbit/s, and 94% can reach gigabit (1,000 Mbit/s) speeds (Breitbandatlas, end of 2025). Of that, 54% 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. Working remotely as a newcomer is straightforward; the connection is rarely the problem here.
Where Offenbach am Main is in Germany
Recorded crime
Police-recorded offences in the district, per 100,000 residents.
In 2025 the police logged 6,818 offences per 100,000 residents here (the Häufigkeitszahl), 34% 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
For most people moving here, local tax is a non-event. The trade-tax multiplier (Gewerbesteuer) is 440%, 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
Offenbach am Main is gaining people. In 2024, 11,237 moved in and 10,730 moved out, a net of +507. More arrive than leave, which keeps steady pressure on the rental market. It granted 810 citizenships in 2024, a naturalisation rate of 1.6%. Some 3,945 people here hold or are seeking protection status, about 29.7 per 1,000 residents, the combined asylum, refugee and humanitarian total, with Ukrainians counted here since 2022. Turnout at the most recent election was 75.2%.
Just arrived in Offenbach am Main? Sort these first
Offenbach am Main sees a lot of churn, so internet hook-ups and bank appointments book out quickly. Sort the essentials before you land.
FAQ: relocating to Offenbach am Main
Is it easy to find a job in Offenbach am Main?
Offenbach am Main has 52,228 jobs (393 per 1,000 residents, including commuters) and 9.6% unemployment, roughly one in 10 of the local workforce, against 6.3% across Germany.
What does it cost to live in Offenbach am Main?
The average net cold rent is €8.76 per m² (20% above the €7.28 German average), from existing 2022 tenancies, so a new lease runs higher. Disposable income per resident is €22,823 (393rd highest of 400 German districts, 26th in Hesse). That is about 20% below the German average of €28,453. Remember it is a nominal figure and ignores what life actually costs here.
Is the internet good enough to work from home in Offenbach am Main?
99% of households can get a fixed line of at least 100 Mbit/s, 94% gigabit of which 54% true fibre (FTTB/H); 5G mobile reaches 100% (Breitbandatlas, end of 2025), so remote work is fine at most addresses.
How built-up is Offenbach am Main?
With about 2,958 residents per km², Offenbach am Main is firmly on the urban side.
Is Offenbach am Main a good place for families?
By the figures: 15.1% of residents are under 15, local schools serve 15,553 pupils, daycare reaches about 55.5% of two-to-three-year-olds.
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 ›