Wiesbaden/Düsseldorf (dpa/lnw) - The municipal debt in North Rhine-Westphalia is above average at 4611 euros per inhabitant. However, in contrast to the development in some other large federal states, municipal debts in NRW fell slightly overall in 2021. This emerges from a model calculation by the statistical offices of the federal and state governments, which was published on Wednesday. In addition to the debts in municipal budgets, this also takes into account the pro rata debts of companies or institutions in which the municipalities hold a majority interest.
According to the state comparison, municipal debt was highest in Saarland at the end of 2021 (6124 euros per inhabitant). NRW occupies fourth place in this negative ranking after Saarland, Hesse (5313 euros) and Rhineland-Palatinate (4688 euros). The national average of municipal debts including municipal participations was therefore 3895 euros per capita. The lowest debts per inhabitant were determined for the municipalities in Brandenburg (2535 euros), Saxony (2583 euros) and Bavaria (2744 euros).
According to the State Statistical Office, municipal debts including municipal holdings in NRW totaled 82.5 billion euros at the end of 2021. That is a decrease of 405 million euros or 0.5 percent. On the other hand, the national average rose by 4.1 percent, according to the Federal Statistical Office. This is mainly due to institutions and companies in which municipalities are involved. The municipalities in Lower Saxony (15.9 percent) and Baden-Württemberg (13.9 percent) showed particularly high percentage increases. In both cases, the increases in debt could be attributed to stakes in utilities, it said.
The city states of Bremen, Berlin and Hamburg are not included in the results, as they are not assigned to the municipal level in the official finance statistics, but to the state level.
