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Ludwigshafen am Rhein
Photo: Dominik Lott (Dolo280), CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.5

Ludwigshafen am Rhein

An industrial city on the Rhine opposite Mannheim, built almost entirely around the world's largest integrated chemical works, still the headquarters and main site of the chemical group BASF. The company dominates the skyline, the tax base and the labour market so thoroughly that the city's fortunes rise and fall with the chemical industry's.

The place

State
Rhineland-Palatinate
Population
177,355as of December 2025 ·
Area
77.4 km²
Density
2,291 people per km²
Public holidays a year
11as of January 2026 ·

Work and pay

Unemployment rate
9.9%as of September 2026 ·
Median gross pay
€5,471 a monthas of December 2025 ·

Local taxes and charges

Grunderwerbsteuer
5%
Church tax
9%
Grundsteuer B, Hebesatz
540%as of January 2024 ·
Gewerbesteuer, Hebesatz
425%as of January 2024 ·

Housing

Asking price, apartments
€2,708 per m²as of September 2026 · sourced · immoportal.com
Asking rent, apartments
€11.84 per m² a monthimmoportal.com
Hausgeld
€3.40 per m² a month
Prices, last 12 months
-2.5%
A 70 m² flat
To buy€189,560
Closing costs on top+ €19,563
To rent, cold€829 a month
Asking rent, BBSR (re-lettings)
€11 per m² a monthas of July 2024 ·
Rent in existing tenancies (Zensus 2022)
€7.31 per m² a monthas of May 2022 ·
Vacant flats
3.2%as of May 2022 ·
Owner-occupiers
34.3%as of May 2022 ·
Paid price, resold flats
–
Paid price, new flats
–

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.

Over time

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

Unemployment rate9.9%

Monthly, Bundesagentur für Arbeit.

Median gross pay a month€5,471

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

Where these numbers come from