Saxony tops education ranking in Germany, Bremen comes last
Saxony took first place in the nationwide ranking of education systems in Germany’s federal states, while Bremen remained in last position. As The Local Germany reports, the study also recorded a deterioration in education standards across all 16 states of the country since 2013.
Ranking leaders and outsiders
Saxony scored 62.9 points, retaining its lead in the annual Bildungsmonitor ranking. Bavaria came second with 57.8 points, while Hamburg was third with 53.6 points. Baden-Württemberg and Saarland also made up the top five.
Thuringia was among the six best-performing states. At the bottom of the list, alongside Bremen with 36.1 points, were Saxony-Anhalt and North Rhine-Westphalia. Brandenburg and Rhineland-Palatinate were also among the lowest-performing group. Berlin ranked 11th.
Germany’s average score was 46.2 points, 2.9 points lower than in the 2013 Bildungsmonitor ranking. The study’s authors noted declines primarily in the quality of school education and educational opportunities.
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How education systems were assessed
The ranking is published by the employer-backed New Social Market Economy Initiative and prepared by researchers at the German Economic Institute. Bildungsmonitor has been conducted annually since 2004; the current edition is based on 98 indicators, mostly using data from 2023 and 2024.
Researchers assessed education systems from childcare facilities to universities. The criteria included class sizes, student-teacher ratios, education spending, availability of all-day childcare, student dropout rates, academic results, vocational training opportunities, and universities’ research indicators.
Digitalization, internationalization, labor-market orientation, and educational poverty were also considered. About 18.8% of young people in Germany have no formal vocational qualification. At the same time, researchers found that young people are now somewhat more likely to achieve upward educational mobility than 20 years ago, although educational success remains strongly linked to social background.
