Fun fact · Our own analysis of OpenStreetMap data, not official statistics. How we measured it
Allotment gardens
Area of allotment gardens (Kleingärten, Schrebergärten) in square metres per inhabitant, OpenStreetMap, September 2026
The East is allotment country: 35.8 m² of allotment gardens per inhabitant, 4.7× the West's 7.6 m². Saxony-Anhalt (44.4 m²) and Thuringia (42.9 m²) lead. In the GDR the dacha and the garden plot were where people grew what the shops lacked, and spent their weekends.
Inner-German border 1949–1990 ·401 districts · September 2026
Former West
7.6
excl. Berlin
Former East
35.8
excl. Berlin
Berlin
9.5
Figures in m² per inhabitant
The East's figure is 4.7× the West's (September 2026).
By state
- Sachsen-Anhalt44.4
- Thüringen42.9
- Mecklenburg-Vorpommern39.2
- Sachsen31.8
- Brandenburg27.0
- Bremen17.5
- Baden-Württemberg14.3
- Hessen11.8
- Berlin9.5
- Hamburg9.5
- Saarland8.1
- Schleswig-Holstein7.5
- Rheinland-Pfalz7.2
- Niedersachsen6.7
- Bayern4.4
- Nordrhein-Westfalen4.3
September 2026
How we measured this
We added up the area of every feature in OpenStreetMap tagged landuse=allotments (garden colonies and individual garden plots) and divided by the population on 31 December 2025. Areas are geodesic square metres computed by osm2rdf; as a check, the same method gives Saarland 2,564 km² against the official 2,571 km². We counted with the QLever SPARQL service (University of Freiburg) on the OpenStreetMap planet file of 21 September 2026; each place is assigned to the state or district whose boundary contains it. Rates are our calculation with official denominators.
- The tag covers garden colonies under the Federal Allotment Garden Act as well as other garden land, so totals are higher than the associations' plot counts.
- OpenStreetMap is compiled by volunteers. Coverage in Germany is good but not complete, and it varies with how active local mappers are.
- Our counts are released under the Open Database License (ODbL), as OpenStreetMap requires.
Notes & caveats
- Mapped allotment land: 442 km² in the five eastern states, 513 km² in the ten western states, 35 km² in Berlin.
- Baden-Württemberg's high value in the West reflects its many small private orchard and garden plots (Stückle), which mappers also tag as allotments.
Show the table
| State | Side | September 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Saarland | west | 8.1 m² per inhabitant |
| Berlin | berlin | 9.5 m² per inhabitant |
| Brandenburg | east | 27.0 m² per inhabitant |
| Mecklenburg-Vorpommern | east | 39.2 m² per inhabitant |
| Sachsen | east | 31.8 m² per inhabitant |
| Sachsen-Anhalt | east | 44.4 m² per inhabitant |
| Thüringen | east | 42.9 m² per inhabitant |
| Schleswig-Holstein | west | 7.5 m² per inhabitant |
| Hamburg | west | 9.5 m² per inhabitant |
| Niedersachsen | west | 6.7 m² per inhabitant |
| Bremen | west | 17.5 m² per inhabitant |
| Nordrhein-Westfalen | west | 4.3 m² per inhabitant |
| Hessen | west | 11.8 m² per inhabitant |
| Rheinland-Pfalz | west | 7.2 m² per inhabitant |
| Baden-Württemberg | west | 14.3 m² per inhabitant |
| Bayern | west | 4.4 m² per inhabitant |