Report of the Federal Government - Equivalent living conditions: Differences are decreasing
Regions with shrinking population face significant challenges according to a report by the German federal government on equality of living conditions, which was approved by the cabinet on a Wednesday. The 2024 Equality Report, as announced by the federal government, shows that differences between regions have decreased for a majority of the examined economic, social, and other indicators in recent years. The traffic light government emphasizes that they have not addressed these issues comprehensively so far.
According to the report, 27 out of a total of 38 equality indicators are approaching each other. These include municipal tax revenue, unemployment rate, crime rate, birth rate, life expectancy, proximity to the nearest supermarket, and the percentage of forested area in the total area of the 400 districts and free cities.
On the other hand, the regions have developed further apart in terms of the proportion of specialists and experts among socially insured employees. The same applies to housing density, the ratio of children to kindergarten places, the proportion of one-person households, and the aging population. No statistically significant change occurred regarding differences in pay between men and women (so-called gender pay gap), population development, premature mortality, and the density of general practitioners.
Besides making regional data available, such as business registrations or the proportion of self-employed individuals, the report also includes the results of a survey. This survey focuses on the satisfaction of citizens regarding certain life areas, infrastructure, and services provided by state welfare.
Additionally, publicly available data on the so-called German Unity Fund for structurally weak regions (GFS) will be released. This German Unity Fund has been the core of the federal government's equality policy since 2020. According to the report, the GFS funding volume in 2022 was 4.2 billion Euro. Approximately half of the funds were used in eastern German districts in 2022. Relatively high per capita payments were made in structurally weak regions in northern Germany, in the Ruhr area, in Rhineland-Palatinate, in Saarland, and along the Bavarian border with the Czech Republic.
The report by the Federal Government highlights that economy-related indicators, such as the unemployment rate, are among those approaching equality across regions in Germany. The shrinking population in certain regions poses significant challenges to living conditions, as mentioned in the approved Equality Report by the Federal Government's cabinet. The Federal Government, led by the traffic light coalition, acknowledges that they have not yet addressed these challenges comprehensively. The report reveals that regions with higher unemployment rates tend to be the same regions with a higher aging population, such as Berlin and parts of northern Germany.
