Developer insights: Berlin vs Munich

Are you team Berlin? Or are you team Munich? Looking around in the tech industry, you would be either one or the other. I haven’t yet encountered a person who is a fan of both 😆

How do the two compare to one another? Anecdotally, we know that Berlin is seen as the hip startup hub, with plenty of opportunities to try yourself out, It has also, for a long time, been seen as a low salary center. Companies could “get away” with paying less.

Munich, on the other hand, is home to the more established tech companies. Google, Microsoft & Co. all have their larger tech focus there within Germany. The numbers of software developers back this up. Or maybe this is a case of hen and egg?

For the full stats on developers in Germany see here.

What do the stats say?

Let’s take a closer look at the stats from the Federal Agency for Employment. At first glance, Berlin and Munich are not that different. Both have software developer populations between 20k and 30k, with a growing tendency.

Age of software developers in Berlin and Munich

In the nuances, the differences underline the general assumptions about both cities. For instance, Berlin boasts a higher percentage of engineers between 25 and 35…