For anyone relocating to Aachen (Städteregion Aachen) 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.
Aachen is a city through and through, and it behaves like one on every measure below. Unemployment is the headline: among the highest-unemployment in North Rhine-Westphalia.
How Aachen compares
Aachen 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.
Aachen beyond the figures
Aachen is a technical university with a city attached. RWTH Aachen is Germany’s largest university of technology and one of Europe’s strongest engineering schools, and the research institutes, spin-offs and industrial partnerships around it are most of what the local economy does. If you are an engineer or a researcher, this is one of the few German cities where the case for moving is the institution itself.
Its other distinguishing feature is the border. The Netherlands and Belgium are both a short drive away, Maastricht and Liège are closer than any German city of comparable size, and a meaningful number of residents work in one country and live in another. Aachen was also Charlemagne’s capital, and the cathedral he built was the first German entry on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
A note on this page’s figures: they cover the Städteregion Aachen, the whole administrative region rather than the city on its own, so the population and the averages include the surrounding towns. Cologne is about an hour away by train, Düsseldorf and its airport a little more.
Neighbourhoods: the Frankenberger Viertel is the handsome, expensive, largely undamaged nineteenth-century quarter. Burtscheid, built around thermal springs, is quiet and well-heeled. The area around Pontstraße is student territory and loud with it. The honest caveat: unemployment across the region runs above the German average, and outside the university and its orbit the job market is unremarkable. Aachen also rains a great deal, even by German standards.
Jobs and the economy
24% above DE avg
Work and residents are fairly evenly matched in Aachen: 228,365 jobs at local workplaces in 2025, 392 per 1,000 residents. Those jobs are spread across 25,006 registered businesses (2024), a sense of how broad the employer base is. Unemployment came in at 7.8% in 2025 (German average 6.3%), roughly one in 13 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. 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
1% below DE avg
10% below DE avg
The average net cold rent (Nettokaltmiete) is €7.20 per m², about 1% below 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 €25,577 (329th highest of 400 German districts, 43rd in North Rhine-Westphalia). That puts it about 10% below 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 €152 per m², the 173rd highest of 394 districts with a recorded price, the raw land cost that ultimately works its way into what you pay in rent. The national midpoint is roughly €132 per m². For a 70 m² flat that is around €504 a month in cold rent at €7.20/m² — an existing tenancy in 2022; budget above it for a new lease. Against local incomes, that ranks 49th most affordable of North Rhine-Westphalia’s 53 districts. That is around 77% of what the same metre costs in Cologne (€9.39/m²).
The local housing market
What you are renting into, on the 2022 census: 64.7% of homes are rented rather than owner-occupied; the vacancy rate is 3.1% (a fairly balanced market); the average home measures 88 m². The stock is 303,560 homes in 125,068 buildings, about 2.4 per building, so this is mostly houses rather than flats. In the latest year 303 new dwellings were completed against 131 permits, a rough read on how fast the housing stock is growing.
Who lives in Aachen
Who lives here, by age and household type, on the 2022 census.
Age distribution
27.6% of residents are aged 25 to 45, the prime working-age band, with 12.9% under 15 and 21.2% at 65 or older. A few more strokes from the 2022 census: 25.1% of residents have a migration history (16.4% are foreign nationals); 45.7% of households are single-person; 44.4% of adults hold an Abitur / university-entrance qualification. There is a real international community to plug into, even if German still runs daily life. School rolls come to 58,050 pupils. Daycare places get easier to find as children get older: about 1.3% of under-1s, 33.3% of 1 to 2 year olds and 70.7% 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
Share of households that can get each speed (Breitbandatlas, end of 2025). Gigabit may run over fibre or upgraded cable; true fibre (FTTB/H) is shown separately.
On fixed broadband, 98% of households can order 100 Mbit/s or more, and 86% can reach gigabit (1,000 Mbit/s) speeds (Breitbandatlas, end of 2025). Fibre all the way to the building (FTTB/H) covers 38% of households, with upgraded cable making up the balance of the gigabit figure. On mobile, 5G reaches 100% of households. Working remotely as a newcomer is straightforward; the connection is rarely the problem here.
Where Aachen is in Germany
Recorded crime
The local rate of recorded offences, per 100,000 residents.
The local rate is 8,281 recorded offences per 100,000 residents (2025, the Häufigkeitszahl), 62% 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 Gewerbesteuer multiplier here is 482% — relevant if you register a business, invisible if you are employed. Tenants meet the property tax (Grundsteuer B) indirectly, via the monthly Nebenkosten. We quote no figure: the 2025 reform reset every rate and the new ones are still settling.
Moving in and out
growing
Aachen is growing. In 2024, the registers recorded 36,141 arrivals against 34,339 departures, a net of +1,802. The inflow tops the outflow, which keeps demand on housing up. 3,890 people were naturalised here in 2024, a naturalisation rate of 3.7%. Around 22,855 residents hold or are seeking protection status, about 39.2 per 1,000 residents, the combined asylum, refugee and humanitarian total, with Ukrainians counted here since 2022. Turnout at the most recent election was 82.1%.
Just arrived in Aachen? Sort these first
With 36,141 people moving into Aachen in a single year, internet installation slots and bank appointments fill up fast. Get the essentials lined up before you arrive.
FAQ: relocating to Aachen
What does it cost to live in Aachen?
The average net cold rent is €7.20 per m² (1% below the €7.28 German average), from existing 2022 tenancies, so a new lease runs higher. Disposable income per resident is €25,577 (329th highest of 400 German districts, 43rd in North Rhine-Westphalia). That puts it about 10% below Germany’s €28,453 average. Remember it is a nominal figure and ignores what life actually costs here.
Is it easy to find a job in Aachen?
Workplaces in Aachen account for 228,365 jobs — 392 per 1,000 residents, commuters included — against unemployment of 7.8%, roughly one in 13 of the local workforce, against 6.3% across Germany.
Is Aachen a city or more rural?
With about 824 residents per km², Aachen is firmly on the urban side.
Is Aachen growing or shrinking?
Aachen is gaining residents: over a year 36,141 people moved in and 34,339 moved out, a net of +1,802, about 0.3% of the population in a year.
Where does Aachen stand versus the German average?
Versus the national average: unemployment 7.8% versus 6.3% nationally; income €25,577 (10% below the €28,453 average); building land €152/m² against a €132 median.
Other places in North Rhine-Westphalia
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 ›