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Dortmund
Photo: Alexandra Fakiri, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Dortmund

The largest city of the Ruhr, once coal and steel, now insurance, logistics, IT and a large technical university. Housing is among the cheapest of the big cities and the city has been steadily reinventing its former industrial land.

Official website Wikidata

The place

State
North Rhine-Westphalia
Population
600,880as of December 2025 ·
Area
280.7 km²
Density
2,141 people per km²
Public holidays a year
11as of January 2026 ·

Work and pay

Unemployment rate
12.3%as of September 2026 ·
Median gross pay
€4,328 a monthas of December 2025 ·

Local taxes and charges

Grunderwerbsteuer
6.5%
Church tax
9%
Grundsteuer B, Hebesatz
610%as of January 2024 ·
Gewerbesteuer, Hebesatz
485%as of January 2024 ·

Housing

Asking price, apartments
€2,556 per m²as of September 2026 · sourced · immoportal.com
Asking rent, apartments
€9.64 per m² a monthimmoportal.com
Hausgeld
€3.40 per m² a month
Prices, last 12 months
+0.5%
A 70 m² flat
To buy€178,920
Closing costs on top+ €21,148
To rent, cold€675 a month
Asking rent, BBSR (re-lettings)
€9 per m² a monthas of July 2024 ·
Rent in existing tenancies (Zensus 2022)
€6.45 per m² a monthas of May 2022 ·
Vacant flats
3.3%as of May 2022 ·
Owner-occupiers
27%as of May 2022 ·
Paid price, resold flats
€2,680 per m²as of July 2023 ·
Paid price, new flats
€4,550 per m²as of July 2025 ·

With your own numbers

The numbers above describe a stranger. The calculators take your own salary, tax class and household and work them through for this city.

Buy or rent hereYour net payCompare with another city

Over time

How these numbers have moved. Each series gains a point whenever new figures are published.

Unemployment rate12.3%

Monthly, Bundesagentur für Arbeit.

Median gross pay a month€4,328

Each 31 December, Bundesagentur für Arbeit, full-time employees by workplace.

Where these numbers come from