Pension - Study: Bavaria particularly unfavorable for pensioners
Pensioners in Bavaria are worse off financially than in other regions of Germany, according to a new study. According to the study, the ratio of housing costs to pension income in 2021 was particularly favorable in Gera and other eastern German cities. This was the result of an analysis published by the Prognos Institute on Thursday. By contrast, regional pension purchasing power was lowest in western Germany and in the south, with Bavaria explicitly mentioned in the study. The study was commissioned by the German Insurance Association in Berlin.
The economists compared estimated regional rents and the average level of pensions for the 400 districts and independent cities in Germany for the years 2013 and 2021 and used this to calculate local purchasing power. "The result is clear. Pensioners live particularly cheaply in eastern Germany," write the authors. "This is because relatively high pensions meet a low cost of living."
"In Bavaria, the opposite is true," the study states. " Pension purchasing power is significantly below average." According to the authors, the generally above-average cost of living in Bavaria is not compensated for by above-average pension income.
For the study, the authors used figures from the Pension Insurance Research Data Center, which published an evaluation of the level of pensions at district level for 2021 last autumn. Prognos also used data on asking rents in the relevant years as an indicator of the cost of living for the calculations. Since 2021, both the cost of living and pensions have risen nationwide due to high inflation.
In Gera, the average monthly pension purchasing power of EUR 1437 in 2021 was well above the national average of EUR 1036. Gera is followed in the top five by four other eastern German municipalities: Chemnitz, Cottbus, Görlitz and the district of Spree-Neisse.
According to the Prognos calculation, three of the five municipalities with the lowest pension purchasing power in 2021 were in Bavaria: the districts of Berchtesgadener Land and Garmisch-Partenkirchen as well as Regensburg with 862 euros per month each.
According to the study, the most unfavorable ratio of housing costs to pension amount nationwide was not in a Bavarian municipality, but in the Eifel district of Bitburg-Prüm in Rhineland-Palatinate. The authors of the study put the monthly pension purchasing power there at 856 euros for 2021. The list of the five least favorable municipalities for pensioners is completed by Freiburg im Breisgau in Baden, also with 862 euros per month.
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- Despite the nationwide increase in both cost of living and pensions due to high inflation in 2021, pension purchasing power in Bavaria was still significantly below the average, according to the Prognos Institute's analysis commissioned by the German Insurance Association in Berlin.
- The financially challenging situation for pensioners in Bavaria was contrasted with the favorable ratio of housing costs to pension income in Gera and other eastern German cities, as outlined in the Prognos Institute's study.
- In the study, the cities with the lowest pension purchasing power in 2021 included three districts in Bavaria: Berchtesgadener Land, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and Regensburg, with an average monthly pension purchasing power of 862 euros each.
- Moving to a city like Gera in eastern Germany could potentially improve the pension purchasing power of a retiree, as the average monthly pension purchasing power in Gera was EUR 1437 in 2021, well above the national average of EUR 1036.
- The Prognos Institute utilized data on asking rents and the level of pensions at district level for their analysis, which revealed that pensioners in Berlin, despite its high cost of living, were better off in terms of pension purchasing power compared to their counterparts in some areas of Bavaria.
Source: www.stern.de
