Bonn and Rhein-Sieg district This is where most of the „income millionaires“ live
Bonn/Region · The number of millionaires living in Bonn increased by about 15 percent in 2015 compared to the previous year, in the Rhein-Sieg district by 32 percent even. This puts the region well above the NRW average.
4886 people in North Rhine-Westphalia earned one million euros or more in 2015. This is ten percent more than in 2014. As the Statistisches Landesamt NRW reports on the basis of the wage and income tax statistics 2015 now available, the state average rate was around 2.7 income millionaires per 10,000 inhabitants (2014: 2.5). Some regional differences are large.
"There are millionaires in income where there are sought-after residential areas," says Luca Rebeggiani, Professor of Economics at the FOM University Centre in Bonn. "So rather not in the stuffy Meckenheim." On the other hand, there are income millionaires in areas where employers pay correspondingly high salaries. "As a rule, these are large corporations and financial institutions, but also health care institutions, since chief physicians can now also earn several 100,000 euros a year."
Bonn behind Cologne and Düsseldorf
In these statistics, Bonn is above the NRW average with a value of 4.0 (2014: 3.6), but behind Cologne and Düsseldorf. While the gap to Cologne (2015: 4.4, 2014: 3.8) is comparatively small, it is relatively clear to Düsseldorf (2015: 7.3, 2014: 6.6). In 2013, Bonn (3.7) was ahead of Cologne (3.6).
In general, it can be observed that there is a growing number of people in Bonn and the region who earn more than one million euros a year. "The rising trend can probably be attributed to the ECB's policy of the last ten years," Rebeggiani said. The rich in particular have benefited from this "extremely loose monetary policy", as they have greatly inflated their equity and real estate assets.
In 2015, a total of 129 income millionaires lived in the federal city - 17 more than in the previous year. This corresponds to an increase of about 15.2 percent. The growth rate is similar for the big neighbour: 464 income millionaires lived in Cologne in 2015, compared with 402 in 2014 (15.4 percent).
In the Rhein-Sieg district, the municipality of Much has the highest rate: 5.5 income millionaires live here per 10,000 inhabitants. It is followed by the cities of Bad Honnef (5.1), Königswinter (4.7) and Lohmar (4.0). The municipality of Wachtberg (3.9) also has a high proportion of people earning more than one million euros. At the bottom of the statistics are Neunkirchen-Seelscheid (1.5) and Eitorf (1.6) as well as the cities of Meckenheim (1.6) and Rheinbach (1.8).
Rhein-Sieg district up 32 percent
The largest increases compared to the previous year were recorded by Königswinter (plus 2.0), Much (plus 2.0) and Bad Honnef (plus 1.1) - i.e. those towns and municipalities in which a relatively large number of income millionaires already lived in 2014. Only in Siegburg and Swisttal has the number of people earning more than one million euros a year not increased. No data are available for the communities of Ruppichteroth and Windeck.
In 2015, a total of 164 millionaires were living in the Rhein-Sieg district, 40 more than in the previous year. This corresponds to an increase of about 32.3 percent.
(Original text: Sebastian Meltz, Joshua Bung, Translation: Mareike Graepel)
