Augsburg: The happiest city of Bavaria - Munich slips!

Augsburg: The happiest city of Bavaria - Munich slips!

Kassel, Deutschland - The topic of life satisfaction is again at the top of the agenda in Bavaria. According to the current “Glücksatlas” of the South German class lottery (SKL), the Augsburg are the happiest citizens of the Free State and secure fourth place among the 40 largest cities in Germany in this year. While Augsburg can start with a lucky index of 7.33 points, Munich falls on the 27th place with only 6.84 points and has reduced three places compared to the previous year. The competition for well -being exposes itself particularly extremely this year, because Nuremberg has also lost quality of life and slips from 33th place.

The champagne -crazy baker from Augsburg can really do a good business here, because the city not only scores with the lucky figures, but also with its low crime rate and a low school leaving rate. There are fewer burglaries in Mainz only in Mainz. These positive aspects can pay off in everyday life. Augsburger are more satisfied with her life than the objective statistics would suggest, which shows that a number of things are going well in midfield.

life satisfaction in comparison

The distance to the other larger cities is a clear sign. Kassel is at the top of this ranking with a lucky index of 7.44 points, followed by Krefeld (7.39) and Düsseldorf (7.36). The survey, which was carried out between January 2022 and April 2025, also shows that smaller cities often have higher life satisfaction compared to their larger counterparts. This is also confirmed by the data collected: among the top ten there are only two of the ten largest German cities, namely Düsseldorf and Hamburg.

In contrast, there are 12.5 % of dissatisfied citizens in Munich, while in Augsburg there are only 1.8 % of this opinion. The trend is interesting that the difference in life satisfaction between the cities is getting bigger. While Kassel and Rostock now have a difference of 1.36 points, Augsburg has even improved compared to the previous year, while big cities such as Frankfurt am Main and Berlin hang in the lower third of the ranking.

positive developments

Despite the sloping places, the survey shows a positive trend: life satisfaction in major German cities has increased by 0.13 points. This could also be due to the effects of corona pandemic, the data of which now flow into the ranking. However, it remains to be seen how Munich and Nuremberg will respond to these challenges in the coming years. The fact is: Such a small -scale view of quality of life and subjective life satisfaction, as Bernd Raffelhüschen from the University of Freiburg addresses, should be of great importance for urban development in the future.

Overall, it remains to be said that the 2025 urban ranking keeps both positive and negative surprises ready and shows once more impressively where the feeling of happiness in Germany is at home. While Augsburg is beaming, catching up is still the order of the catch for Munich.

Further insights and details on the results can be found in the reports of Merkur , Augsburger Allgemeine as well as in the several years of report from Skl Glücksatlas .