Living in Berlin
Berlin, Germany, about 3,426,354 people. What you would earn and keep, the climate month by month, and every open figure we hold, each with its source, period and licence.
Weigh Berlin against other cities, with your own numbers
Key facts
- Berlin has about 3,426,354 residents (GeoNames).
- On a gross salary of €60,000 a year, an employee in Berlin takes home about €37,551 a year (€3,129 a month) after income tax and employee contributions, an effective rate of 37.4% (Germany 2026 rules).
- In Berlin the average daily high (air temperature in the shade) peaks at 24.7 °C in July and the average daily low falls to −0.2 °C in February (Historical weather (ERA5 reanalysis), Open-Meteo, 2021-2025).
- Berlin has about 31 nice days a year, days that are dry, mostly clear and feel 18 to 30 °C on average from 8 am to 8 pm, most of them in June (8) (Historical weather (ERA5 reanalysis), Open-Meteo, 2021-2025).
- Between 2021 and 2025 the air in Berlin reached 37.7 °C at its hottest and −15.0 °C at its coldest (Historical weather (ERA5 reanalysis), Open-Meteo).
- It rains or snows (at least 1 mm) on about 125 days a year in Berlin (Historical weather (ERA5 reanalysis), Open-Meteo, 2021-2025).
- The shortest day in Berlin lasts 7 h 39 min and the longest 16 h 50 min (computed from latitude).
- Fine dust (PM2.5) in Berlin averages 11.3 µg/m³ a year, 2.3 times the WHO guideline of 5 µg/m³ (WHO Ambient Air Quality Database v8.0 (2026), World Health Organization, 2024).
- Everyday prices in Germany sit at 81.2 on an index where the United States is 100 (World Development Indicators, World Bank, 2025).
- Life expectancy at birth in Germany is 80.8 years (World Development Indicators, World Bank, 2024).
- Germany records 0.91 intentional homicides per 100,000 people a year (World Development Indicators, World Bank, 2023).
- Besides citizens of Germany, citizens of 29 other countries under EU and EEA free movement and of Switzerland (Swiss-EU free movement) can live and work in Berlin without a visa.
What you would take home
| Gross a year | Take-home a year | A month | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| €30,000 | €21,223 | €1,769 | 29.3% |
| €60,000 | €37,551 | €3,129 | 37.4% |
| €100,000 | €58,014 | €4,835 | 42.0% |
Employee, statutory health insurance, no church tax: income tax (§ 32a 2026, splitting for a married couple), solidarity surcharge, health, care (by number of children), pension and unemployment insurance, with the standard allowances. Rules for 2026. Sources: Gesetze im Internet: § 32a EStG (2026 tariff), Gesetze im Internet: § 9a EStG (employee allowance), Gesetze im Internet: § 10 and § 10c EStG (insurance and special expenses), Gesetze im Internet: §§ 3-4 SolzG 1995 (exemption threshold and rate), Gesetze im Internet: Sozialversicherungs-Rechengrößenverordnung 2026, Bundesgesundheitsministerium: health insurance contributions 2026 (average additional rate 2.9%), Deutsche Rentenversicherung: Werte der Sozialversicherung 2026 (pension 18.6%, care 3.6%/4.2%).
- Health insurance uses the 2026 average additional rate (2.9%); each fund sets its own. Above €77,400 an employee may switch to private insurance instead.
- Care insurance includes the 0.6% surcharge for the childless from age 23 (assumed reached when no age is given); a parent pays no surcharge, and 0.25 points less for each child under 25 from the second to the fifth.
- Child benefit (Kindergeld) and the child allowance are not counted.
- No church tax (8% of income tax in Bavaria, 9% elsewhere, for members).
- Annual assessment with standard allowances only; payroll withholding differs during the year.
- No special regime for newcomers in Germany; a taxable share or flat rate can still model a treaty or employer arrangement.
A month in Berlin
| Take-home payafter income tax and contributions | €3,129 |
|---|---|
| Rent, one bedroomno open rent data yet: add your own in the app | not known |
| Everyday spendinga starting guess, scaled from Lisbon: set your own by the World Bank price level | −€1,501 |
| Health careout of pocket | −€55 |
| Left each monthneeds rent | not known |
Assumed: one person, €60,000 gross a year, renting a one-bedroom home, and everyday spending of €1,200 a month in Lisbon scaled by each country's price level. These are the app's defaults; change any of them there.
Who can live and work here freely
- Citizens of Germany.
- Citizens of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, under EU and EEA free movement (Directive 2004/38/EC and the EEA Agreement). Directive 2004/38/EC, extended to Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway by the EEA Agreement. Beyond three months a registration is usually required, but no visa or permit to work.
- Citizens of Switzerland, under Swiss-EU free movement (Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons (EU-Switzerland)).
Climate
| Month | High °C (air) | Low °C (air) | Lowest °C | Highest °C | Nice days | Wet days | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 4.5 | −0.1 | −10.6 | 15.8 | 0 | 13.0 | 8 h 09 |
| Feb | 6.5 | −0.2 | −15.0 | 17.8 | 0 | 12.0 | 9 h 45 |
| Mar | 10.5 | 1.4 | −5.9 | 21.7 | 0 | 7.8 | 11 h 48 |
| Apr | 13.8 | 4.4 | −3.5 | 27.3 | 0 | 9.0 | 13 h 55 |
| May | 19.1 | 9.3 | 1.9 | 28.5 | 2 | 9.8 | 15 h 48 |
| Jun | 24.6 | 14.0 | 7.0 | 35.6 | 8 | 10.6 | 16 h 49 |
| Jul | 24.7 | 15.3 | 10.1 | 37.7 | 7 | 12.8 | 16 h 18 |
| Aug | 24.5 | 15.1 | 8.1 | 37.1 | 7 | 9.6 | 14 h 39 |
| Sep | 21.0 | 12.1 | 3.5 | 33.7 | 7 | 7.0 | 12 h 34 |
| Oct | 15.1 | 8.0 | 0.2 | 24.6 | 0 | 10.6 | 10 h 27 |
| Nov | 8.2 | 3.0 | −8.0 | 17.2 | 0 | 10.2 | 8 h 38 |
| Dec | 4.7 | 0.5 | −10.9 | 16.5 | 0 | 12.2 | 7 h 40 |
Daylight is computed from latitude: the shortest day lasts 7 h 39 min, the longest 16 h 50 min.
Every figure
No open figure yet for: rent, one bedroom, rent, three bedrooms, your childcare cost, health insurance premium. A country-wide figure is marked as such where it stands in for the city.
Compare Berlin with
- Berlin vs Amsterdam
- Berlin vs Bologna
- Berlin vs Bristol
- Berlin vs Brussels
- Berlin vs Budapest
- Berlin vs Cambridge
- Berlin vs Copenhagen
- Berlin vs Cork
- Berlin vs Dublin
- Berlin vs Edinburgh
- Berlin vs Florence
- Berlin vs Geneva
- Berlin vs Hamburg
- Berlin vs Helsinki
- Berlin vs Kraków
- Berlin vs London
- Berlin vs Lyon
- Berlin vs Madrid
- Berlin vs Manchester
- Berlin vs Milan
- Berlin vs Munich
- Berlin vs Naples
- Berlin vs Oslo
- Berlin vs Paris
- Berlin vs Prague
- Berlin vs Rome
- Berlin vs Rotterdam
- Berlin vs Stockholm
- Berlin vs Tallinn
- Berlin vs Torino
- Berlin vs Vienna
- Berlin vs Warsaw
- Berlin vs Zurich
Elsewhere
Sources we link to but do not copy, because their licences forbid it.
Credits
- Borgo contributors, from the statutes cited in each figure's note (CC BY 4.0)
- Borgo's summary of the EU-Swiss Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons (State Secretariat for Migration) (Borgo's own summary of the law cited (CC BY 4.0); the official text is cited, not copied)
- Unicode CLDR territory information. Copyright © 1991-2026 Unicode, Inc. Used under the Unicode License v3 (https://www.unicode.org/license.txt) (Unicode License v3)
- Borgo contributors, from the statutes cited in each figure's note (CC BY 4.0)
- Borgo's summary of Directive 2004/38/EC (© European Union, EUR-Lex) (Borgo's own summary of the law cited (CC BY 4.0); the official text is cited, not copied)
- Source: Eurostat, EU Labour Force Survey (edat_lfse_04, © European Union). Borgo keeps each region's latest value Eurostat is not responsible for Borgo's use of its data. (European Commission reuse policy (Decision 2011/833/EU): reuse with the source acknowledged and changes stated)
- Source: Eurostat, Urban Audit (© European Union). Borgo keeps each city's latest value and converts units where its note says so Eurostat is not responsible for Borgo's use of its data. (European Commission reuse policy (Decision 2011/833/EU): reuse with the source acknowledged and changes stated)
- Founders Running Club communities list (facts of presence and links only) (No licence from the publisher: only facts of presence are stored)
- Places, coordinates, populations and time zones from GeoNames (geonames.org), CC BY 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)
- GHS-UCDB R2024A, European Commission, Joint Research Centre, CC BY 4.0, doi:10.2905/1a338be6-7eaf-480c-9664-3a8ade88cbcd; Borgo derives the distance from the centre to the urban centre's edge Shores and lakes from Natural Earth (public domain) decide which directions lead on to land. (CC BY 4.0)
- Counts of GitHub profiles by stated location, from GitHub's public user search (counts only, no profile data) (No data licence from the publisher: only total counts are stored, no record about anyone, as its terms allow public, non-personal information in openly published research)
- Borgo contributors, from the labour codes cited in each figure's note (CC BY 4.0)
- The M-Lab NDT Data Set, 2023-01-01–2023-12-31. https://measurementlab.net/tests/ndt (CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication))
- Public holidays from Nager.Date (date.nager.at), MIT License, Copyright (c) Nager (MIT License)
- Made with Natural Earth (public domain) (Public domain (dedicated by the publisher))
- OECD (2026), Net childcare costs, OECD Tax-Benefit Models, https://www.oecd.org/en/data/indicators/net-childcare-costs.html Reusers must cite the OECD as above and pass this acknowledgement requirement on to anyone they share the data with. (OECD terms for data: any use, with the OECD citation passed on)
- OECD (2026), OECD Family Database, PF2.1 Parental leave systems, https://www.oecd.org/en/data/datasets/oecd-family-database.html Reusers must cite the OECD as above and pass this acknowledgement requirement on to anyone they share the data with. (OECD terms for data: any use, with the OECD citation passed on)
- OECD (2026), OECD Well-being Database (How's Life?), https://www.oecd.org/en/data/datasets/well-being-database.html Reusers must cite the OECD as above and pass this acknowledgement requirement on to anyone they share the data with. (OECD terms for data: any use, with the OECD citation passed on)
- Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (https://open-meteo.com/), CC BY 4.0 Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2021-2025. Neither the European Commission nor ECMWF is responsible for any use that may be made of the Copernicus information or data it contains. (CC BY 4.0)
- OpenAlex (openalex.org), CC0 (CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication))
- © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0 (https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright) (Open Database License 1.0)
- © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0 (https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright) (Open Database License 1.0)
- Airports from OurAirports (ourairports.com), public domain (Public domain (dedicated by the publisher))
- Borgo contributors, from official election results and ParlGov party positions (Döring, Huber and Manow, ParlGov 2024 release, CC0) (CC BY 4.0)
- Research Organization Registry (ror.org), CC0 (CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication))
- Terrain Tiles on AWS Open Data (Mapzen, a Linux Foundation project): SRTM and GMTED2010 terrain data courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey; ETOPO1, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Canada terrain data contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada (Terrain Tiles source terms: public domain (USGS, NOAA) and Open Government Licence – Canada, with attribution)
- World Health Organization, WHO Ambient Air Quality Database (Version 8.0), 2026, accessed 2026-10-27; data provided by the national and regional agencies named in each value's note WHO does not endorse Borgo, its use of these data, or any city ranking built from them. Values are as published by WHO; WHO advises against using the database to rank cities or compare countries directly, because monitoring differs between places. (WHO terms and conditions for data compilations)
- WMO Member Nations (2023). WMO Climatological Standard Normals for 1991-2020 (NCEI Accession 0253808), sunshine duration. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. https://doi.org/10.25921/800j-vn07 (No licence attached: NCEI public access with a requested citation, under the WMO Unified Data Policy)
- World Bank, World Development Indicators, CC BY 4.0 (underlying sources named in each figure's note: ICP, IMF, UNODC, UN Population Division, WHO, ILO, UNESCO Institute for Statistics) (CC BY 4.0)
- World Bank, Worldwide Governance Indicators, Control of Corruption estimate, CC BY 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)
Cite this page
Borgo, “Living in Berlin”, https://borgo.abcastor.com/city/berlin-de/, figures as of 2026-11-05. Please also name the original source of any figure you use; each is listed above with its licence. Data: berlin-de.json.