Winner of the 2026 City Ranking
In 2026, Munich once again defended its top position in the annual city ranking by WirtschaftsWoche, ImmoScout24, and IW Consult.
#1 in the Level Ranking
Once again this year, Munich tops the city ranking, which evaluates Germany’s largest cities in terms of their economic strength and quality of location. In 2026, the sub-rankings in the quality and dynamism rankings are supplemented by the newly created AI index.
Since 2013, Munich has been the undisputed leader in the “Level” ranking, which assesses the economic and social conditions of cities—followed this year by Frankfurt am Main and Stuttgart. Munich scores particularly high due to its broad mix of industries and strong focus on high-growth high-tech sectors such as the AI industry, biotech, defense and aerospace.
In the dynamism ranking, which examines development over the past five years, Munich ranked 4th this year. As in the past, cities starting from a weaker position could secure the top spots due so more significant changes. Frankfurt am Main (#1), Düsseldorf (#2), and Berlin (#3) this time came in with more dynamic developments in the job market, construction activity and per-capita growth here.
However, Munich confidently took first place in the newly developed AI ranking. This index reflects the extent to which entrepreneurial clusters in the field of artificial intelligence have already emerged in the city. This was measured based on AI startup density, the number of patent applications, the number of job advertisements related to AI and the number of companies considered AI pioneers.
Munich’s Success Factors
Munich also performs very well in the individual assessment of the share of university graduates. Only Karlsruhe has a higher share. Munich also ranks among the top cities for municipal tax revenue per capita and is surpassed only by Frankfurt.
Munich also ranked a very strong second among German cities in terms of the number of building permits for residential properties, although purchase prices for residential property remained the highest and housing costs in Munich, at 30.7 percent of income, represented the highest figure nationwide.
Despite this, Munich is particularly attractive to young adults, as shown by the “net migration rate”: Munich was the second most attractive city for new residents between the ages of 25 and 30.
Other strengths that underline Munich’s top position in the IW City Ranking, as in previous years, were its excellent research landscape, low crime rate and booming tourism sector.
The Ranking
Every year, WirtschaftsWoche, IW Consult and ImmoScout24 analyse the quality of living and working in Germany’s independent cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants. This year, 71 cities were examined.