Munich. The Bavarian capital ranked highly in a comparative study of Germany's state capitals in 2008. The lowest crime rate, the fewest HartzIV recipients,  the most foreigners, states TZ.

With 78 recorded crimes per 1,000 inhabitants, Munich also defended the title of the safest state capital. Considerably more dangerous was living in Schwerin with 169 criminal acts per thousand inhabitants.

A comparison was made to the Brandenburg capital Potsdam: since 1995, Munich, with 23.1% had the largest proportion of foreigners and with 78 recorded cases per thousand inhabitants, the lowest crime.

Munich had less than half as many unemployed as in Berlin. There were 5.2% unemployed in the Bavarian capital, where in Berlin 12.9 percent were without a job. The Munich purchasing power was stronger than in Duesseldorf and Wiesbaden.

In Munich, 54 from 0ne thousand inhabitants in working age were receiving HartzIV. Schwerin, however, was among the 16 state capitals with the poor record of 204 HartzIV recipients per thousand.

With so many positive features, it seems no wonder that more and more people want to live in Munich: from 2004 to 2008, the population of the Bavarian capital grew by 7.4 percent to nearly 1.4 million. No other city in the study showed stronger population growth.