Commuting across the old border
Share of employees living in a state who work on the other side of the former inner-German border (Berlin excluded), 30.6.2025
345,510 employees living in the five eastern states commute to a job in the West, 6.9% of all employed eastern residents. Only 124,221 make the opposite trip (0.4% of western residents), so 2.8 times as many cross westwards as eastwards. Berlin draws another 281,334 commuters from the eastern states.
< 1.9%1.9%3.6%5.3%7.0%≥ 8.7%
Inner-German border 1949–1990 ·16 states · 30.6.2025
Former West
0.4%
excl. Berlin
Former East
6.9%
excl. Berlin
Germany
1.4%
The East's figure is 17.3× the West's (30.6.2025).
By state
- Thüringen10.4%
- Mecklenburg-Vorpommern8.9%
- Sachsen-Anhalt8.5%
- Sachsen5.0%
- Brandenburg4.7%
- Schleswig-Holstein0.9%
- Niedersachsen0.8%
- Hamburg0.7%
- Bremen0.6%
- Hessen0.6%
- Bayern0.4%
- Nordrhein-Westfalen0.3%
- Rheinland-Pfalz0.3%
- Saarland0.2%
- Baden-Württemberg0.2%
30.6.2025
Notes & caveats
- Employees subject to social insurance (no civil servants or self-employed), counting where they live and where they work on 30 June 2025. A commuter may travel daily or weekly.
- Shares are our calculation from the BA state matrix: residents of a state working in any state on the other side of the old border, divided by all employed residents of that state. Berlin is left out on both sides because the city spans the old border.
- Cells of 1 or 2 are suppressed by the BA and counted as 0. Data for 2025 are provisional for three years.
- A district-level matrix for 2025 is not yet published (the newest is for 30.06.2023).
Show the table
| State | Side | 30.6.2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Saarland | west | 0.2% |
| Berlin | berlin | — |
| Brandenburg | east | 4.7% |
| Mecklenburg-Vorpommern | east | 8.9% |
| Sachsen | east | 5.0% |
| Sachsen-Anhalt | east | 8.5% |
| Thüringen | east | 10.4% |
| Schleswig-Holstein | west | 0.9% |
| Hamburg | west | 0.7% |
| Niedersachsen | west | 0.8% |
| Bremen | west | 0.6% |
| Nordrhein-Westfalen | west | 0.3% |
| Hessen | west | 0.6% |
| Rheinland-Pfalz | west | 0.3% |
| Baden-Württemberg | west | 0.2% |
| Bayern | west | 0.4% |