Relocating to Dortmund 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, Dortmund concentrates people, work and cost into a small area. A softer job market stands out: among the highest-unemployment in North Rhine-Westphalia.
How Dortmund compares
Where Dortmund 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.
Why people move to Dortmund
Dortmund spent a century on coal, steel and beer and lost all three within a generation. What replaced them is a technology and logistics economy built deliberately around TU Dortmund and the Technologiepark next to it: software, microsystems and a large distribution sector using the city’s position at the eastern end of the Ruhr. It has worked better than in most of the Ruhr, but not completely, and the unemployment figure on this page is the evidence.
The city’s public identity is Borussia Dortmund. Signal Iduna Park is the largest football stadium in Germany and its standing terrace the largest in Europe, and on a home Saturday that is simply what the city is doing. If football means nothing to you, this will be the strangest thing about living here.
Practically, Dortmund is cheap. Rents are among the lowest of any major German city, which is the reason a lot of people choose it, and the whole Ruhr — Bochum, Essen, Duisburg, Düsseldorf — is inside an hour by regional train, so the effective job market is far bigger than the city itself. The airport is small; Düsseldorf handles anything long-haul.
Neighbourhoods: the Kreuzviertel is the attractive, walkable, slightly bourgeois centre of gravity for newcomers. Hombruch and Kirchhörde in the south are green and family-oriented. Phoenix See, a lake built on a former steelworks in Hörde, is the flagship regeneration project and the newest housing. The northern districts are markedly poorer and that divide is real and visible. The honest caveat: incomes here are low and the recovery is incomplete. Dortmund is affordable because it has to be.
Jobs and the economy
90% above DE avg
Dortmund roughly balances jobs and residents: 266,398 jobs at local workplaces in 2025, 441 per 1,000 residents. Those jobs are spread across 22,865 registered businesses (2024), a sense of how broad the employer base is. Unemployment came in at 12.0% in 2025 (German average 6.3%), roughly one in 8 of the local workforce.
Full-time employees living here take home a median gross wage of €4,000 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.
Cost of living and housing
11% below DE avg
15% below DE avg
The going rate for net cold rent (Nettokaltmiete) is €6.45 per m², about 11% below the German average of €7.28. Sitting tenants pay this 2022 census rate, and newcomers on the open market generally pay a step up. Residents are left with €24,200 a year to spend (377th highest of 400 German districts, 47th in North Rhine-Westphalia). That is about 15% below 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 €328 per m², the 75th highest of 394 districts with a recorded price, the bare ground before a brick is laid and the floor under every local rent. Half of Germany’s districts come in under about €132 per m². For a 70 m² flat that is around €452 a month in cold rent at €6.45/m² — an existing tenancy in 2022; budget above it for a new lease. Against local incomes, that ranks 45th most affordable of North Rhine-Westphalia’s 53 districts. For scale, that is about 69% of the rent in Cologne (€9.39/m²).
The local housing market
Here is the shape of the market, from the 2022 census: 73.0% of homes are rented rather than owner-occupied; the vacancy rate is 3.3% (a fairly balanced market); the average home measures 80 m². The stock is 323,444 homes in 96,706 buildings, about 3.3 per building, so this is very much flats over houses. In the latest year 238 new dwellings were completed against 245 permits, a gauge of whether new supply keeps up with demand.
Who lives in Dortmund
Ages and household composition, as recorded by the 2022 census.
Age distribution
27.7% of residents are aged 25 to 45, the bracket most relocations fall into, with 14.3% under 15 and 20.5% at 65 or older. The 2022 census fills in the rest: 30.0% of residents have a migration history (19.1% are foreign nationals); 48.6% of households are single-person; 41.0% of adults hold an Abitur / university-entrance qualification. As a newcomer from abroad you would blend straight in; this is a properly international place. Local schools serve 65,655 pupils. Daycare places get easier to find as children get older: about 1.6% of under-1s, 33.1% of 1 to 2 year olds and 64.7% 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
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.
96% of households are within reach of at least 100 Mbit/s on a fixed line, and 81% can reach gigabit (1,000 Mbit/s) speeds (Breitbandatlas, end of 2025). Of that, 40% 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. If you are keeping a job abroad, a home office works at most addresses here.
Where Dortmund is in Germany
Recorded crime
The local rate of recorded offences, per 100,000 residents.
The local rate is 11,446 recorded offences per 100,000 residents (2025, the Häufigkeitszahl), 125% 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 485% — 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
Dortmund is gaining people. Arrivals and departures in 2024: 29,823 in, 25,891 out, a net of +3,932. The inflow tops the outflow, which keeps demand on housing up. In 2024 the district naturalised 4,065 residents, a naturalisation rate of 3.3%. Some 32,505 people here hold or are seeking protection status, about 53.9 per 1,000 residents, the combined asylum, refugee and humanitarian total, with Ukrainians counted here since 2022. Voter turnout last time around was 80.1%.
Just arrived in Dortmund? Sort these first
In a city like Dortmund, the practical stuff (internet, banking, a SIM) is easier arranged early than scrambled for on arrival.
FAQ: relocating to Dortmund
What is the job market like in Dortmund?
There are 266,398 jobs at workplaces in Dortmund, 441 for every 1,000 residents once commuters are counted, with unemployment at 12.0%, roughly one in 8 of the local workforce, against 6.3% across Germany.
How expensive is Dortmund to live in?
Expect €6.45 per m² in net cold rent on the 2022 census average (11% below the €7.28 national figure), and more again on a fresh lease. Disposable income per resident is €24,200 (377th highest of 400 German districts, 47th in North Rhine-Westphalia). That is about 15% below the German average of €28,453. This figure is nominal, not adjusted for the local cost of living.
Is Dortmund a city or more rural?
With about 2,150 residents per km², Dortmund is firmly on the urban side.
Will broadband in Dortmund support remote work?
96% of households can get a fixed line of at least 100 Mbit/s, 81% gigabit of which 40% true fibre (FTTB/H); 5G mobile reaches 100% (Breitbandatlas, end of 2025), so the connection is rarely the issue for home working.
Is Dortmund a good place for families?
What the data shows: 14.3% of residents are under 15, local schools serve 65,655 pupils, daycare reaches about 64.7% of two-to-three-year-olds.
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 ›