Bitkom State Index 2024 - Focus on the digital economy

The Bitkom State Index, published for the first time, compares more than 1,200 data points from all state governments, the responses of over 5,600 German citizens and numerous third-party studies and official statistics to find out more about the degree of digitalization in the 16 German states. Berlin tops the list in the digital economy category.

The city states lead in terms of digital economy

In order to assess the innovative strength and degree of digitalization of the economy, the relevance of the ITC sector (information and communication technology) and the study and training subject of computer science as well as the number of start-ups founded in the individual states were considered. On average, 69 points were achieved here - the three city states of Berlin (85 points), Hamburg (82 points) and Bremen (71 points) lead the table.  

Berlin lives up to its reputation as a start-up city and clearly sets itself apart from all other federal states with the highest number of start-ups (100 points). However, the capital is also convincing in terms of the importance of ICT companies (95 points) and IT specialists (90 points).

Only Hamburg outperforms Berlin in terms of the relevance of the ICT sector and IT specialists (100 points). Hamburg is also in second place in the country comparison in terms of the significance of IT as a training subject (97 points). Only in terms of the number of start-ups (67 points) does the northern light still have some catching up to do.

With an unbeatable 100 points, Bremen is the leader in the field of computer science education. The city is also in a good third place academically in a nationwide comparison in terms of computer science studies (93 points).

Untapped potential in the new federal states

In the new federal states, there is still potential for development in terms of the level of digitalization and innovative strength.

In Thuringia, the number of IT specialists (31 points) and IT trainees (41 points) is below average. Thuringia has the greatest need to catch up nationwide, particularly in terms of the number of start-ups (5 points).

Saxony-Anhalt also ranks at the bottom of the state comparison in the digital economy category. In particular, ITC companies (32 points) and IT specialists (23 points) are assigned low importance here. This is similarly reflected in the study (56 points) and training subject (37 points) computer science. With only a few start-ups (6 points), Saxony-Anhalt ranks second to last in this segment.

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is below the national average in almost all indicators in the digital economy category. Similar to Saxony-Anhalt, the state has a number of untapped potentials in terms of start-ups (10 points), the training (33 points) and specialist area (53 points) of IT and the importance of its ITC companies (34 points).

All information on the Bitkom State Index, the individual categories and state profiles can be found here.