Relocating to Schwalm-Eder-Kreis 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.
Most of Schwalm-Eder-Kreis earns its money beyond the district boundary. Affordability is the story: among the most affordable in Hesse.
How Schwalm-Eder-Kreis compares
How Schwalm-Eder-Kreis 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 Schwalm-Eder-Kreis stacks up across Hesse: Cheapest to rent · Safest · Best for families.
Cost of living and housing
28% below DE avg
6% below DE avg
Building plots go for around €54 per m², the 318th highest of 394 districts with a recorded price, the raw land cost that ultimately works its way into what you pay in rent. The median German district is around €132 per m². Your money stretches further on housing here. The average net cold rent (Nettokaltmiete) is €5.26 per m², about 28% below 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 €26,801 (262nd highest of 400 German districts, 19th in Hesse). That is about 6% 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 €5.26/m², a 70 m² flat works out to about €368 a month in cold rent (existing-tenancy 2022 level; a new lease costs more). Relative to what people here earn, it is the 4th most affordable of Hesse’s 26 districts. That is around 50% of what the same metre costs in Frankfurt (€10.58/m²). The trade-off is the usual one: cheaper to rent than most, but with fewer local jobs.
The local housing market
What you are renting into, on the 2022 census: 35.8% of homes are rented rather than owner-occupied; the vacancy rate is 5.1% (neither tight nor slack); the average home measures 114 m². The stock is 90,080 homes in 56,349 buildings, about 1.6 per building, so this is house-heavy rather than high-rise. In the latest year 271 new dwellings were completed against 104 permits, a rough read on how fast the housing stock is growing.
Who lives in Schwalm-Eder-Kreis
Age profile and household make-up from the 2022 census.
Age distribution
The population here skews older. 23.3% of residents are aged 25 to 45, the prime working-age band, with 13.4% under 15 and 24.7% at 65 or older. The 2022 census fills in the rest: 18.4% of residents have a migration history (8.3% are foreign nationals); 36.5% of households are single-person; 28.0% of adults hold an Abitur / university-entrance qualification. Local schools serve 19,809 pupils. Daycare coverage rises with age: about 1.8% of under-1s, 36.9% of 1 to 2 year olds and 73.2% of 2 to 3 year olds have a place, meaning infants are the squeeze and toddlers far less so.
Jobs and the economy
27% below DE avg
Work and residents are fairly evenly matched in Schwalm-Eder-Kreis: 60,098 jobs at local workplaces in 2025, 334 per 1,000 residents. Those jobs are spread across 6,626 registered businesses (2024), a rough measure of how varied the local employers are. Unemployment stands at 4.6% in 2025 (German average 6.3%), roughly one in 22 of the local workforce.
Full-time employees living here take home a median gross wage of €3,950 a month (about the national median), 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.
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.
93% of households can get a fixed line of at least 100 Mbit/s, and 80% can reach gigabit (1,000 Mbit/s) speeds (Breitbandatlas, end of 2025). Of that, 67% 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 98% of households. Working remotely as a newcomer is straightforward; the connection is rarely the problem here.
Where Schwalm-Eder-Kreis is in Germany
Recorded crime
The local rate of recorded offences, per 100,000 residents.
The local rate is 3,508 recorded offences per 100,000 residents (2025, the Häufigkeitszahl), 31% below 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 398%, 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
Schwalm-Eder-Kreis is growing. In 2024, 12,244 moved in and 11,289 moved out, a net of +955. More arrive than leave, which keeps steady pressure on the rental market. In 2024 the district naturalised 320 residents, a naturalisation rate of 1.8%. About 7,920 residents are recorded with protection status, about 44.0 per 1,000 residents, the combined asylum, refugee and humanitarian total, with Ukrainians counted here since 2022. Turnout at the most recent election was 84.5%.
Just arrived in Schwalm-Eder-Kreis? Sort these first
Expect to drive in Schwalm-Eder-Kreis, a more rural district, at about 117 people per km², so car insurance and a bank account are worth sorting early.
FAQ: relocating to Schwalm-Eder-Kreis
Can I work remotely from Schwalm-Eder-Kreis?
93% of households can get a fixed line of at least 100 Mbit/s, 80% gigabit of which 67% true fibre (FTTB/H); 5G mobile reaches 98% (Breitbandatlas, end of 2025), so remote work is fine at most addresses.
What does it cost to live in Schwalm-Eder-Kreis?
The average net cold rent is €5.26 per m² (28% below the €7.28 German average), from existing 2022 tenancies, so a new lease runs higher. Disposable income per resident is €26,801 (262nd highest of 400 German districts, 19th in Hesse). That is about 6% below the German average of €28,453. Building land is around €54 per m², which feeds into local rents. This figure is nominal, not adjusted for the local cost of living.
How are job prospects in Schwalm-Eder-Kreis?
Schwalm-Eder-Kreis has 60,098 jobs (334 per 1,000 residents, including commuters) and 4.6% unemployment, roughly one in 22 of the local workforce, against 6.3% across Germany.
Is a car necessary in Schwalm-Eder-Kreis?
Schwalm-Eder-Kreis has about 117 residents per km². That is rural enough that a car is normally a must for work and errands.
Is Schwalm-Eder-Kreis a good place for families?
On the numbers: 13.4% of residents are under 15, local schools serve 19,809 pupils, daycare reaches about 73.2% 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 ›