Bruchsal, Germany, December 14, 2015 – Germans are poised to enjoy a nominal purchasing power increase of €430 per person in the coming year. This is one of the findings of GfK's new study, GfK Purchasing Power Germany 2016. The GfK data shows significant differences in how this purchasing power is regionally distributed.
GfK forecasts a total purchasing power of €1,776.5 bil. for Germany in 2016. Based on the current population of around 81 million inhabitants, this equates to €21,879 per person. Compared to the previous year, Germans will thus benefit from a nominal average increase of two percent or €430 per person in 2016 for consumption, rent and other living costs. A forecast by the European Commission puts the 2016 inflation rate at one percent, which means Germans can expect a real-value purchasing power increase of one percent.
Purchasing power is a measure of the population's disposable net income, including government subsidies such as pension payments, unemployment assistance and child benefit.
Regional distribution of purchasing power
The list of Germany's top ten urban and rural districts remains the same as last year. As in previous years, the rural district of Starnberg is Germany's district with the highest per-capita purchasing power. With €31,850 per person, inhabitants of this district have 46 percent more than the national average.
Top ten urban and rural districts in 2016
| 2016 ranking | urban district (UD) / rural district (RD) | inhabitants | GfK Purchasing Power 2016 per inhabitant in € | purchasing power index* |
| 1 | Starnberg RD | 131,873 | 31,850 | 145.6 |
| 2 | Hochtaunuskreis RD | 230,798 | 31,238 | 142.8 |
| 3 | Munich RD | 332,800 | 30,530 | 139.5 |
| 4 | Main-Taunus-Kreis RD | 229,976 | 29,665 | 135.6 |
| 5 | Munich UD | 1,429,584 | 29,578 | 135.2 |
| 6 | Ebersberg RD | 134,873 | 29,105 | 133.0 |
| 7 | Fürstenfeldbruck RD | 210,278 | 27,450 | 125.5 |
| 8 | Erlangen RD | 106,423 | 27,187 | 124.3 |
| 9 | Dachau RD | 146,279 | 26,861 | 122.8 |
| 10 | Stormarn RD | 236,705 | 26,321 | 120.3 |
source: GfK Purchasing Power Germany 2016 *index per inhabitant; 100 = national average
With €17,194 per person, the rural district of Görlitz continues to be in last place among Germany's 402 districts. The rural district of Oldenburg comes in at the national average.
The federal states in eastern Germany are slowly but surely catching up in terms of their purchasing power, but they still lag significantly behind Germany's other federal states. Even though a comparison of index values (deviation from average) reveals both positive and negative trends, the absolute volume of per-capita purchasing power is growing in all federal states, with the most growth in Saxony (+2.8 percent) and the least in Hamburg (+1.5 percent). The per-capita purchasing power increases in 2016 range from €360 to €500, depending on the federal state in question.
Federal states: Winners and losers in 2016
| index change compared to previous year (absolute) | federal state | GfK Purchasing Power 2016 per inhabitant in € | purchasing power index* | 2016 ranking |
| +0.7 | Saxony | 18,615 | 85.1 | 13 |
| +0.6 | Thuringia | 18,587 | 85.0 | 14 |
| +0.6 | Saxony-Anhalt | 18,335 | 83.8 | 15 |
| +0.5 | Brandenburg | 19,691 | 90.0 | 12 |
| +0.3 | Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania | 18,216 | 83.3 | 16 |
| +0.2 | Saarland | 20,463 | 93.5 | 9 |
| +0.1 | Schleswig-Holstein | 22,058 | 100.8 | 5 |
| -0.1 | Bavaria | 23,843 | 109.0 | 2 |
| -0.1 | Hesse | 23,293 | 106.5 | 4 |
| -0.1 | North Rhine-Westphalia | 21,876 | 100.0 | 6 |
| -0.1 | LowerSaxony | 21,409 | 97.9 | 8 |
| -0.2 | Baden-Württemberg | 23,368 | 106.8 | 3 |
| -0.2 | Rhineland-Palatinate | 21,500 | 98.3 | 7 |
| -0.2 | Berlin | 19,990 | 91.4 | 11 |
| -0.4 | Bremen | 20,224 | 92.4 | 10 |
| -0.5 | Hamburg | 24,024 | 109.8 | 1 |
