Relocating to Bonn 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.
As one of North Rhine-Westphalia’s cities, Bonn concentrates people, work and cost into a small area. Building land is the headline: the 2nd priciest for building land of North Rhine-Westphalia’s 53 districts.
How Bonn compares
Bonn 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.
Why expats end up in Bonn
Bonn was the capital of West Germany from 1949 until reunification, and it never entirely stopped being a capital. Twenty-seven United Nations organisations sit on the UN Campus in the former parliamentary quarter — the climate secretariat among them — several federal ministries stayed behind, and two of Germany’s largest companies, Deutsche Post DHL and Deutsche Telekom, have their headquarters a short walk from each other by the Rhine. For an international career in development, climate or telecoms, Bonn punches far above a city of its size.
That institutional weight gives the place a particular character: multilingual, well-off, and quieter than the numbers suggest. The university is one of Germany’s oldest and largest, Beethoven was born here, and the museums along the Museumsmeile are genuinely good.
Practically, Bonn is twenty minutes from Cologne and about half an hour from Cologne/Bonn airport, so a small city comes with a large one attached. The Rhine valley and the Siebengebirge hills start immediately south of the city.
Neighbourhoods: the Südstadt, with its unbombed nineteenth-century streets, is the most attractive and the most expensive. Poppelsdorf is the student and academic quarter. Bad Godesberg, the old diplomatic district, is leafy and international with a large embassy legacy. Beuel, across the river, is cheaper. The honest caveat: Bonn is small and its job market is narrow. If you are not working for a UN body, a ministry, one of the two big corporates or the university, the options thin out quickly, and the rents are high for what the city is.
Jobs and the economy
17% above DE avg
Bonn is a net importer of workers. It holds 195,321 jobs at local workplaces in 2025, 604 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 15,892 registered businesses (2024), which gives a feel for the spread of employers here. On the labour side, unemployment runs at 7.4% in 2025 (German average 6.3%), roughly one in 14 of the local workforce.
The median full-time worker here earns €4,550 a month gross (15% above 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
25% above DE avg
2% above DE avg
Housing is the line item that bites in Bonn. On average, tenants pay €9.09 per m² in net cold rent (Nettokaltmiete), about 25% above the German average of €7.28. It reflects existing tenancies from the 2022 census; expect to pay above it on a new contract. Each resident has €29,079 of disposable income a year (150th highest of 400 German districts, 18th in North Rhine-Westphalia). That is about 2% above the German average of €28,453. It is a headline figure, not adjusted for local prices, so read it next to the rent above. Building plots go for around €759 per m², the 17th highest of 394 districts with a recorded price, the bare ground before a brick is laid and the floor under every local rent. The national midpoint is roughly €132 per m². At €9.09/m², a 70 m² flat works out to about €636 a month in cold rent (existing-tenancy 2022 level; a new lease costs more). Relative to what people here earn, it is the 52nd most affordable of North Rhine-Westphalia’s 53 districts. That is around 97% of what the same metre costs in Cologne (€9.39/m²). Rents are steep, but the jobs are genuinely here rather than a commute away.
The local housing market
Here is the shape of the market, from the 2022 census: 70.4% of homes are rented rather than owner-occupied; the vacancy rate is 2.8% (a tight market); the average home measures 83 m². At that vacancy rate viewings get crowded, so have your paperwork ready before you turn up. The stock is 179,722 homes in 57,222 buildings, about 3.1 per building, so this is dominated by apartment blocks. In the latest year 141 new dwellings were completed against 77 permits, a rough read on how fast the housing stock is growing.
Who lives in Bonn
Age profile and household make-up from the 2022 census.
Age distribution
The age mix here leans young and working-age. 29.2% of residents are aged 25 to 45, the prime working-age band, with 13.6% under 15 and 19.1% at 65 or older. A few more strokes from the 2022 census: 31.1% of residents have a migration history (17.8% are foreign nationals); 52.6% of households are single-person; 57.5% of adults hold an Abitur / university-entrance qualification. Enough foreign residents that you would not feel like the only newcomer, though German remains the default. Local schools serve 40,330 pupils. Daycare places get easier to find as children get older: about 2.6% of under-1s, 42.0% of 1 to 2 year olds and 71.6% of 2 to 3 year olds have a place, so finding care for an infant is harder than 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.
98% of households are within reach of at least 100 Mbit/s on a fixed line, and 95% can reach gigabit (1,000 Mbit/s) speeds (Breitbandatlas, end of 2025). Only part of that is fibre: 26% of households can get FTTB/H, and upgraded cable carries the rest. On mobile, 5G reaches 100% of households. Working remotely as a newcomer is straightforward; the connection is rarely the problem here.
Where Bonn is in Germany
Recorded crime
The local rate of recorded offences, per 100,000 residents.
In 2025 the police logged 8,593 offences per 100,000 residents here (the Häufigkeitszahl), 69% above the German district median of about 5,096. It records reported offences rather than convictions, and runs high in places with lots of through-traffic (stations, motorways, airports, busy centres) where many cases involve non-residents. Treat it as a measure of recorded activity, not of personal risk for residents. Source: Polizeiliche Kriminalstatistik, BKA 2025.
Local taxes
For most people moving here, local tax is a non-event. The trade-tax multiplier (Gewerbesteuer) is 537%, but it only touches you if you register a business: the tax office sets a base amount, the municipality multiplies it. Property tax (Grundsteuer B) is passed on to tenants inside the Nebenkosten. The 2025 reform reset it nationwide, so a current rate would be guesswork and we leave it out.
Moving in and out
growing
Bonn is gaining people. Arrivals and departures in 2024: 28,908 in, 26,927 out, a net of +1,981. Arrivals outnumber departures, so the rental market stays tight. It granted 1,490 citizenships in 2024, a naturalisation rate of 2.4%. Some 15,105 people here hold or are seeking protection status, about 46.7 per 1,000 residents, the combined asylum, refugee and humanitarian total, with Ukrainians counted here since 2022. Turnout at the most recent election was 84.9%.
Just arrived in Bonn? Sort these first
Bonn sees a lot of churn, so internet hook-ups and bank appointments book out quickly. Sort the essentials before you land.
FAQ: relocating to Bonn
How expensive is Bonn to live in?
Net cold rent averages €9.09 per m², 25% above the German average of €7.28. That is the 2022 census level for sitting tenants; a new contract costs more. Disposable income per resident is €29,079 (150th highest of 400 German districts, 18th in North Rhine-Westphalia). That is about 2% above the German average of €28,453. This figure is nominal, not adjusted for the local cost of living.
What is the job market like in Bonn?
There are 195,321 jobs at workplaces in Bonn, 604 for every 1,000 residents once commuters are counted, with unemployment at 7.4%, roughly one in 14 of the local workforce, against 6.3% across Germany.
Is Bonn growing or shrinking?
Bonn is gaining residents: over a year 28,908 people moved in and 26,927 moved out, a net of +1,981, about 0.6% of the population in a year.
Can I work remotely from Bonn?
98% of households can get a fixed line of at least 100 Mbit/s, 95% gigabit of which 26% true fibre (FTTB/H); 5G mobile reaches 100% (Breitbandatlas, end of 2025), so a home office works at most addresses here.
How built-up is Bonn?
With about 2,292 residents per km², Bonn is a dense, urban place.
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 ›