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Gelsenkirchen
Photo: Thomas Robbin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

Gelsenkirchen

A Ruhr city hit hardest by the end of coal, with the highest unemployment of any German big city and the lowest housing prices. Home to Schalke 04 and to serious efforts at renewal, but the economic base is still thin.

Official website Wikidata

The place

State
North Rhine-Westphalia
Population
266,199as of December 2025 ·
Area
104.9 km²
Density
2,537 people per km²
Public holidays a year
11as of January 2026 ·

Work and pay

Unemployment rate
15.6%as of September 2026 ·
Median gross pay
€4,127 a monthas of December 2025 ·

Local taxes and charges

Grunderwerbsteuer
6.5%
Church tax
9%
Grundsteuer B, Hebesatz
675%as of January 2024 ·
Gewerbesteuer, Hebesatz
480%as of January 2024 ·

Housing

Asking price, apartments
€1,232 per m²as of September 2026 · sourced · immoportal.com
Asking rent, apartments
€7.28 per m² a monthimmoportal.com
Hausgeld
€3.30 per m² a month
Prices, last 12 months
-25.2%
A 70 m² flat
To buy€86,240
Closing costs on top+ €10,194
To rent, cold€510 a month
Asking rent, BBSR (re-lettings)
€7 per m² a monthas of July 2024 ·
Rent in existing tenancies (Zensus 2022)
€5.47 per m² a monthas of May 2022 ·
Vacant flats
5.3%as of May 2022 ·
Owner-occupiers
23.7%as of May 2022 ·
Paid price, resold flats
€1,678 per m²as of July 2025 ·
Paid price, new flats
€3,546 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 rate15.6%

Monthly, Bundesagentur für Arbeit.

Median gross pay a month€4,127

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

Where these numbers come from