D.he state capital has around 290,000 inhabitants, and all forecasts point to further population growth, at least in the medium term. However, the pace and extent of the increase in new residents remain open, especially since Wiesbaden has performed rather poorly in a regional comparison in the past decade. This emerges from an analysis by the Office for Statistics and Urban Research. Accordingly, the population of Wiesbaden has increased by around three percent – around 7,500 people – since 2011.
This puts Wiesbaden in last place in a comparison of the independent cities in the region and remains well below the growth in Mainz (plus 8.7 percent), Offenbach (plus 13.4) and Frankfurt (plus 12.8).
Young people gained
The report shows that Wiesbaden is losing more people to the surrounding cities and communities than the state capital is gaining from them. But this does not apply to all age groups. For example, between 2011 and 2019, the state capital gained 200 to 300 people from the 18 to 24-year-old age group from the surrounding area. In all other age groups, however, the bottom line is that the city regularly loses to the surrounding area. Above all, the age group of the thirty to forty year olds as well as children and adolescents – these numbers are presumably from households in the family formation phase – are drawn out of the big city and into the countryside in the phase of life.
From the point of view of statisticians, the number of residential buildings and apartments developed in parallel with the population development in these ten years: around 1,300 additional residential buildings and around 4,300 apartments were built between 2011 and 2019. In Wiesbaden, however – unlike in Frankfurt, for example – it was not possible to significantly increase the number of newly built apartments.
Families move to the countryside
Since more was built in the districts and municipalities in the surrounding area than in Wiesbaden, according to the statisticians, “a classic pattern of residential suburbanization” is confirmed: people are continuously moving to the still booming Rhine-Main area. Young people in particular mostly and in their majority choose urban life in independent cities for their studies or training. In the start-up phase of families, many people move to the communities in the neighboring districts in order to gain more living space at lower prices for an expanding household. The proximity to the big city remains important.
For Mayor Gert-Uwe Mende (SPD) this confirms that it is high time for a “change of course on the subject of new buildings”. Significantly more housing construction in the lower and middle price segment as well as medium-sized apartments is necessary in order to be able to offer all age groups in Wiesbaden an appropriate housing offer.
What is remarkable in Wiesbaden, however, is the disproportionate population growth in the city center, which now has 30,000 inhabitants. Since 2010, Wiesbaden has grown by a total of 6.5 percent to 291,000 inhabitants. An above-average number (plus 10.1 percent) were drawn to the city center. But because there is hardly any new building there, the average living space per inhabitant is falling.
In any case, the development of living space in the city cannot keep pace with population and household developments. This is shown by calculations according to which the average living space per inhabitant in the inner city is falling and the average living space per apartment is also decreasing. A project with the Geographical Institute of the University of Mainz under the direction of Anton Escher is therefore eagerly awaited. For this purpose, the city center was chosen as the “subject of research”. Around 150 students conducted more than 2000 interviews to get a realistic picture of the current situation. The Office for Statistics and Urban Research accompanied the start of the investigation with a data analysis on “Wiesbaden’s inner city in transition”. The report on the results should be available shortly.
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