Augsburg shines as a city of luck: Munich is far from it!

Augsburg shines as a city of luck: Munich is far from it!

Rostock, Deutschland - What makes a city worth living? Many people ask themselves, especially if they are looking for the place of their hometown in the new “Glücksatlas” of the South German class lottery (SKL). As the current evaluation shows, Augsburg is happy about an impressive fourth place in the ranking of the 40 largest German cities - even as the happiest city in southern Germany. With a lucky index of 7.33 points, Augsburg only leaves Kassel, Krefeld and Düsseldorf behind. In contrast, it looks very different for Munich, which has performed to 27th place with 6.84 points and has therefore fallen by three places compared to the previous year, as Merkur.

Background of the survey are the answers from 23,468 respondents from 40 cities, which were asked about their life satisfaction between January 2022 and April 2025. The results show that smaller cities in particular tend to have higher life satisfaction. Bernd Raffelhüschen from the University of Freiburg explains that factors such as a young, student -shaped environment as well as a lot of green and good medical care are crucial. Augsburg has such characteristics, while Munich is on average in many welfare indicators.

Augsburg's strengths and Munich in a descent

In Augsburg, life satisfaction is remarkably high according to the survey results - only 1.8 % of the residents are dissatisfied, the lowest part in Germany. Munich, on the other hand, has an dissatisfied share of 12.5 %. Despite a slight above -average income and a low crime rate, Munichers are fighting with challenges such as long pendulum routes and a decreasing construction activity. This is reflected in the general attitude to life.

• Glücksatlas-Städteranking 2025:
  • Kassel: 7.44 points
  • Krefeld: 7.39 points
  • Düsseldorf: 7.36 points
  • Augsburg: 7.33 points
  • Aachen: 7.33 points
  • Erfurt: 7.27 points
  • Münster: 7.24 points
  • Mönchengladbach: 7.22 points
  • Hamburg: 7.21 points
  • Duisburg: 7.20 points
• life satisfaction in big cities:
  • Munich: 27th place (6.84 points)
  • Nuremberg: 36th place (6.62 points)
  • Frankfurt am Main: 35th place (6.65 points)
  • Berlin: 37th place (6.62 points)
  • Rostock: bottom of 6.08 points

A look into the future

The studies also show that life satisfaction in the major German cities has increased by 0.13 points compared to the previous year. Nevertheless, there is a significant difference between the cities, with a gap of 1.36 points between Kassel, the happiest city, and Rostock, which is at the other end of the ranking. The urban ranking also indicates a significant trend: a high quality of life is not automatically equated with high life satisfaction.