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Germany's greenest cities
By City Mayors Research

ON THIS PAGE: Green spaces dominate German cities ||| Table: Germany's greenest cities ||| Research methodology |||

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Germany’s largest cities
November 2017: Almost 70 per cent of the land areas of Germany’s largest cities is taken up by green spaces. Added together, the urban areas of all of Germany cities with more than 100,000 people total 13,564 square kilometres, equivalent to the size of Montenegro, while their green spaces amount to 9,457 sq km, an area roughly the size of Cyprus. University cities like Siegen, Göttingen, Aachen and Freiburg are among the top 10. Green spaces include parks, woodland and agricultural land within city borders and also private gardens.

With green spaces making up 86 per cent of its urban area, Siegen, in North-Rhine Westphalia, is the ‘greenest’ German city. Ludwigshafen, home to BASF, the world’s largest chemical company, is the least green of Germany’s 79 Großstädte, cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants. There are 17 cities where green spaces make up 80 per cent or more of their land areas. The list of 17 includes cities like Aachen, Freiburg, Saarbrücken and Münster. The German capital Berlin is placed 63rd in the overall table, while Hamburg, Cologne and Munich are ranked 39th, 65th and 74th respectively.

Germany’s greenest cities

Rank	City Großstädte with more than 100,000 inhabitants	Total area in sq km (1)	Green spaces in sq km	Green spaces % of total area (2)
1	Siegen	115	99	86%
2	Göttingen	117	99	85%
3	Bergisch Gladbach	83	70	84%
4	Salzgitter	224	188	84%
5	Pforzheim	98	82	83%
6	Aachen	161	133	82%
7	Hildesheim	93	76	82%
8	Freiburg	153	125	82%
9	Hagen	160	130	81%
10	Saarbrücken	167	136	81%
11	Bielefeld	258	209	81%
12	Münster	303	245	81%
13	Paderborn	179	143	80%
14	Hamm	226	181	80%
15	Jena	114	91	80%
16	Remscheid	75	60	80%
17	Reutlingen	87	69	80%
18	Trier	117	92	79%
19	Wolfsburg	204	161	79%
20	Rostock	181	143	79%
21	Chemnitz	221	174	79%
22	Solingen	90	71	79%
23	Lübeck	214	167	78%
24	Wiesbaden	204	159	78%
25	Wuppertal	168	130	78%
26	Ulm	119	92	77%
27	Kassel	107	81	75%
28	Braunschweig	192	144	75%
29	Mönchengladbach	170	125	74%
30	Oldenburg	103	76	74%
31	Bottrop	101	74	73%
32	Koblenz	105	76	73%
33	Mülheim/Ruhr	91	66	73%
34	Bonn	141	102	72%
35	Darmstadt	122	88	72%
36	Heidelberg	109	79	72%
37	Ingolstadt	133	95	72%
38	Augsburg	147	105	72%
39	Hamburg	755	539	71%
40	Kiel	119	85	71%
41	Heilbronn	100	71	71%
42	Reckinghausen	66	47	71%
43	Dortmund	281	199	71%
44	Osnabrück	120	85	71%
45	Stuttgart	207	145	70%
46	Bochum	146	101	69%
47	Dresden	328	228	69%
48	Würzburg	88	61	69%
49	Potsdam	188	130	69%
50	Krefeld	138	95	69%
51	Bremen	325	222	68%
52	Essen	210	143	68%
53	Moers	68	45	66%
54	Hannover	204	133	65%
55	Offenbach	45	29	65%
56	Karlsruhe	173	111	64%
57	Gelsenkirchen	105	67	64%
58	Mainz	98	62	64%
59	Leverkusen	79	50	64%
60	Bremerhaven	94	58	62%
61	Neuss	100	61	61%
62	Erlangen	77	46	60%
63	Berlin	892	526	59%
64	Oberhausen	77	45	59%
65	Cologne	405	237	58%
66	Herne	51	30	58%
67	Frankfurt/Main	248	144	58%
68	Duisburg	233	132	57%
69	Düsseldorf	217	123	57%
70	Magdeburg	201	109	54%
71	Erfurt	269	143	53%
72	Regensburg	81	43	53%
73	Fürth	63	33	52%
74	Munich	310	155	50%
75	Halle	135	66	49%
76	Nürnberg	186	89	48%
77	Mannheim	145	64	44%
78	Leipzig	297	126	42%
79	Ludwigshafen	78	27	35%
	TOTAL / AVERAGE	13,564 sq km	9,457 sq km	69%

Sources and research methodology:
(1) The research used the size of urban areas provided by municipal websites as well as relevant Wikipedia pages.

(2) The green spaces research was carried out by the Berliner Morgenpost using 185 satellite images.

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