Purchasing Power in 2026
Find the potential customers who are interested in your products.
Consumer barometer for market analysis
Once a year, we calculate the projected purchasing power for all of Germany. In its latest purchasing power analysis, Nexiga has determined that per capita purchasing power has risen to 31,650 EUR: that is approximately 1,650 EUR more than in the previous year.
In real terms, purchasing power looks different “in the pockets” of citizens due to the current crises and significantly higher prices. Persistent inflation directly affects the trend in purchasing power and plays a decisive role in determining the real value of money in the hands of consumers.
When inflation rises, purchasing power falls, as the same amount of money can buy fewer goods or services. As a result, Germans have experienced a decline in real wages since 2021. The official inflation rate in Germany for 2025 averaged about 2.2% for the year .
According to the data, consumer prices rose by 2.2 percent compared to the previous year. This means that inflation remained at a similar level from 2024 to 2025, indicating a certain degree of stabilization following the sharp fluctuations of previous years. In 2023, it stood at 5.9%, and in 2022, it was as high as 6.9%. (Source: Statista)
The calculation does not take into account individual expenses such as rent, utilities, insurance, or other living expenses. Purchasing power thus deliberately reflects the theoretically available demand in a region and serves as the basis for informed decisions regarding location, sales, and expansion.
Commitment to successful marketing
-
Optimize campaign management: Plan locations, advertising initiatives, and sales more effectively.
-
Conducting Effective Target Audience Analysis: Identify and pinpoint your target audiences to precisely tailor your advertising, products, pricing, and sales efforts.
-
Make customer acquisition more successful: Target new customers effectively by identifying those with high purchasing power.
Map of Purchasing Power in Germany in 2026
Purchasing power as the key to making informed market decisions
Optimize your customer management and manage locations, advertising, and sales in a targeted and efficient manner. The projected purchasing power for 2026 across all of Germany provides a solid foundation for strategic decisions.
As a key indicator, it reveals where actual demand potential exists—and enables highly targeted planning of marketing and sales activities. Because it is available at the microgeographic level, target groups can be segmented even more precisely, and regional differences can be taken into account with great accuracy.
Reach your customers exactly where it really pays off for you.
Regional distribution of purchasing power
The current analysis, which presents purchasing power in 2026 for all of Germany at Municipality, shows the regional distribution of purchasing power (purchasing power at the municipal level: “Index DE = 100 » €31,620 per resident per year”).
Purchasing power is particularly high in and around the major cities. The municipalities with the highest purchasing power extend in a crescent shape through the west of Germany, from Hamburg to Hanover and the Rhine region with Düsseldorf, the Rhine-Main area around Frankfurt, the Stuttgart region and the Munich area.
In 2026, the municipalities with the highest purchasing power will once again include Grünwald near Munich (comparison index 246.1) and Wohltorf near Hamburg (205.6). Königstein im Taunus (190.9) is once again in third place, followed by Pullach im Isartal (191.2) in the greater Munich area. There, residents have roughly twice the purchasing power of the national average.
The east-west difference remains stable
As was the case last year, the“poorer” larger municipalitiesinclude Zittau in Saxony (83.8), Wolgast in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (83.9), and Prenzlau in Brandenburg (85.5)—all of which are located in the new federal states. However, numerous municipalities in western Germany also fall into this group with low purchasing power. These include cities such as the university town of Giessen in Hesse (81.5) and Germersheim in Rhineland-Palatinate (84.1). Trier (84.9), Bremerhaven (86.2), and Gelsenkirchen (88.6) are also among the cities with low purchasing power.
A disparity between theWest, which has higher purchasing power, and the East remains evident. Although municipalities in eastern Germany have been catching up year after year, the disparity in purchasing power will remain stable in 2026.
