Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) - Of the 1,101 municipalities in Baden-Württemberg, 96 were completely debt-free last year. The State Statistical Office announced on Monday in Stuttgart that there were mainly communities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants, the majority even with fewer than 5,000. Debt-free means that neither the core budget nor the municipality's own operations have loans, cash advances or securities debts in the public and non-public sectors.
Debt-free municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants also include Bietigheim-Bissingen (Ludwigsburg district) - with 43,222 people the largest debt-free municipality - as well as Lorch (Ostalbkreis) and Engen (Konstanz district). According to statistics, another 59 communities do not have "zero debt". However, their per capita debt was less than 100 euros per inhabitant.
According to the state office, the municipalities and their own companies are indebted at almost 15.1 billion euros - one billion more than in the previous year. The average per capita debt has risen from 1271 to 1355 euros.
