Kassel is the lucky metropolis - Frankfurt at the end of the list!

Kassel is the lucky metropolis - Frankfurt at the end of the list!

Wiesbaden, Deutschland - in Hesse is a lot about life satisfaction - especially in Kassel. The city has again secured the title of the happiest city in Germany! As part of the SKL-gücksatlas, Kassel occupies the top position with a score of 7.44 and leaves many larger cities behind. This shows that satisfaction can often be found in smaller, family environments, while metropolises like Frankfurt have to fight with their challenges.

How the Hessische/Lower Saxony Allgemeine reports only in 35th place. Needing needs. The city not only fights with high cost of living, but also with traffic problems. A topic that deals with many Frankfurters. The quality of life is objectively not bad, but many residents feel more dissatisfied than in smaller cities.

urban ranking and quality of life

In comparison, Kassel demonstrates its strengths: a young population, numerous green spaces and good medical care ensure a high level of life satisfaction. With 7.44 points, Kassel is the best city in the 2025 urban ranking, followed by Augsburg and Aachen, both of which can come up with 7.33 points. Even if the objective quality of life in Kassel is assessed as average, the distribution of happiness plays a crucial role. The city emphasizes this uniformity of satisfaction, while in large cities there are often unequal conditions.

according to the Brisant are people in large cities over 400,000 inhabitants tend to be less happy. Sometimes even higher prosperity does not lead to the desired satisfaction. Instead of pretending to have big metropolises such as Munich or Frankfurt, many prefer to settle in cities like Kassel, where everyday life is more relaxed.

negative trends in large cities

The survey on life satisfaction, which interviewed a total of 23,468 people between January 2022 and April 2025, shows that loners and below -average environmental quality reduce satisfaction in large cities. Wiesbaden with 39th and Rostock is the most unfortunate cities in Germany in the last place. Both are clearly behind compared to Kassel, which is green and family -friendly.

The German capital Berlin didn't hit it better either: with 37th place, the life satisfaction of the Berliners is also rather poor. On average, many big cities sit at the end of the list, while Kassel and other smaller cities take the management positions because they offer the right mix of quality of life and satisfaction.

In summary, it can be stated that on the one hand the positive trend is held and on the other hand, smaller cities like Kassel show what true happiness really makes up. The comparison between subjective life satisfaction and objectively measured quality of life proves that the best living conditions do not always guarantee the highest satisfaction. Kassel is the best example of the fact that there is another way. If you have a good knack for the right living environment, you can really be happy.