For anyone relocating to Wiesbaden 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.
Wiesbaden is fully urban, with the density, jobs and rents that come with it. Incomes are the standout: the 2nd highest-income of Hesse’s 26 districts.
How Wiesbaden compares
Where Wiesbaden 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 Wiesbaden stacks up across Hesse: Cheapest to rent · Safest · Best for families.
Jobs and the economy
30% above DE avg
More people work in Wiesbaden than its size suggests. It holds 151,230 jobs at local workplaces in 2025, 524 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 14,951 registered businesses (2024), a sense of how broad the employer base is. Unemployment stands at 8.2% in 2025 (German average 6.3%), roughly one in 12 of the local workforce.
Median gross pay for full-time staff here is €4,350 a month (10% above the German median of €3,950), before tax. 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.
Cost of living and housing
27% above DE avg
19% above DE avg
Housing is the line item that bites in Wiesbaden. The average net cold rent (Nettokaltmiete) is €9.21 per m², about 27% 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 €33,796 (13th highest of 400 German districts, 2nd in Hesse). That puts it about 19% above Germany’s €28,453 average. On its own that number tells half the story; the local cost of living does the rest. Building plots go for around €760 per m², the 16th 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 €9.21/m², a 70 m² flat works out to about €645 a month in cold rent (existing-tenancy 2022 level; a new lease costs more). Relative to what people here earn, it is the 17th most affordable of Hesse’s 26 districts. That is around 87% of what the same metre costs in Frankfurt (€10.58/m²). It is dear to rent, though the incomes on offer lean high as well.
The local housing market
Here is the shape of the market, from the 2022 census: 72.7% of homes are rented rather than owner-occupied; the vacancy rate is 3.3% (roughly in balance); the average home measures 83 m². The stock is 153,235 homes in 39,716 buildings, about 3.9 per building, so this is very much flats over houses. In the latest year 106 new dwellings were completed against 99 permits, a rough read on how fast the housing stock is growing.
Who lives in Wiesbaden
Age profile and household make-up from the 2022 census.
Age distribution
27.4% of residents are aged 25 to 45, the bracket most relocations fall into, with 14.3% under 15 and 19.9% at 65 or older. A few more strokes from the 2022 census: 34.7% of residents have a migration history (21.3% are foreign nationals); 50.1% of households are single-person; 45.2% of adults hold an Abitur / university-entrance qualification. For an international moving in, that is reassuring: you would be far from the only foreigner here. Local schools serve 33,950 pupils. Daycare coverage rises with age: about 4.0% of under-1s, 44.9% of 1 to 2 year olds and 68.3% 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.
98% 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, 25% 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 Wiesbaden is in Germany
Recorded crime
Police-recorded offences in the district, per 100,000 residents.
The local rate is 7,554 recorded offences per 100,000 residents (2025, the Häufigkeitszahl), 48% 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 460%, 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
The headcount in Wiesbaden is rising. In 2024, 17,046 moved in and 15,201 moved out, a net of +1,845. Arrivals outnumber departures, so the rental market stays tight. 1,755 people were naturalised here in 2024, a naturalisation rate of 2.7%. Some 15,205 people here hold or are seeking protection status, about 52.6 per 1,000 residents, the combined asylum, refugee and humanitarian total, with Ukrainians counted here since 2022. Turnout at the most recent election was 79.7%.
Just arrived in Wiesbaden? Sort these first
Wiesbaden sees a lot of churn, so internet hook-ups and bank appointments book out quickly. Sort the essentials before you land.
FAQ: relocating to Wiesbaden
How are job prospects in Wiesbaden?
Wiesbaden has 151,230 jobs (524 per 1,000 residents, including commuters) and 8.2% unemployment, roughly one in 12 of the local workforce, against 6.3% across Germany.
Is Wiesbaden expensive to live in?
The average net cold rent is €9.21 per m² (27% above the €7.28 German average), from existing 2022 tenancies, so a new lease runs higher. Disposable income per resident is €33,796 (13th highest of 400 German districts, 2nd in Hesse). That puts it about 19% above Germany’s €28,453 average. It is not adjusted for local prices, so treat it as a headline only.
Can I work remotely from Wiesbaden?
98% of households can get a fixed line of at least 100 Mbit/s, 80% gigabit of which 25% true fibre (FTTB/H); 5G mobile reaches 100% (Breitbandatlas, end of 2025), so remote work is fine at most addresses.
Is Wiesbaden a city or more rural?
With about 1,417 residents per km², Wiesbaden is a built-up, urban area.
Is Wiesbaden gaining or losing people?
Wiesbaden is gaining residents: over a year 17,046 people moved in and 15,201 moved out, a net of +1,845, about 0.6% of the population in a year.
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 ›