The number of start-ups has risen in most federal states
The highest number of new business registrations in 2025 was recorded in the Munich district. It was followed by the city of Leverkusen – last year's top-ranked region – the Teltow-Fläming district, and the independent cities of Baden-Baden and Offenbach am Main. These are the findings of the latest NUI (New Entrepreneurial Initiative) regional ranking.
The NUI indicator measures the number of new business registrations per 10,000 residents of working age in a region over the course of a year. Consequently, the NUI score is influenced both by changes in the number of business registrations and by changes in the size of the working-age population. Within the NUI frame-work, new entrepreneurial initiatives comprise new registrations of small businesses, local units, business start-ups through succession, business relocations into a region, and the commencement of part-time commercial self-employment.
Changes in the 2025 NUI regional ranking
New entrants to the top 20 are the independent city of Memmingen and the districts of Marburg-Biedenkopf, Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen, Mettmann, Ostholstein, and Hochtaunus. In contrast, the districts of Nordfriesland and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, together with the independent cities of Rosenheim, Kempten (Allgäu), Cologne, Düsseldorf, and the capital, Berlin, have dropped out of the top 20.
Overall, the top 20 comprises seven districts and independent cities in Bavaria (primarily in the Greater Munich area), five in Hesse (within the Greater Frankfurt region), two independent cities (Essen and Leverkusen) and one district (Mettmann) in North Rhine-Westphalia, one district in Schleswig-Holstein (Ostholstein), one independent city each in Rhineland-Palatinate (Koblenz) and Baden-Württemberg (Baden-Baden), and two districts in Brandenburg (Dahme-Spreewald and Teltow-Fläming).
Berlin and Hamburg remain the leading federal states
Entrepreneurial activity increased in every federal state except Bremen and Hamburg. Despite this, Hamburg continues to rank second behind Berlin. Above-average growth was recorded in Brandenburg and Baden-Württemberg, as well as in Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Lower Saxony, Thuringia, and Saarland.
