Saxony and Bavaria are the strong locations for family businesses in Germany
Saxony knocks Bavaria off its throne, Lower Saxony is working its way forward, Saxony-Anhalt is particularly future-oriented, Rhineland-Palatinate is lagging behind. The results of the second federal state index of the Family Business Foundation in cooperation with ZEW Mannheim are in part surprising.
Among the territorial states, Saxony achieved first place in the Federal State Index 2025 with around 59 points, displacing Bavaria, which is now in second place, from first place in the Federal State Index 2022. Saxony achieved its top position in the overall ranking thanks to good scores in the sub-indicators "Labor & Human Capital" (first place among the territorial states), "Financing" (second place among the territorial states) and "Infrastructure" (joint first place with Lower Saxony among the territorial states).
Saxony and Bavaria are well ahead in the ranking, which combines a large number of individual indicators into five sub-indices: Taxes, Labor / Human Capital, Financing, Infrastructure, Institutions.
In the sub-indicator “Infrastructure,” Saxony scores particularly well in the sub-indicators “ICT infrastructure,” “Electricity supply,” and “Business-related research infrastructure.” In terms of “Labor & Human Capital,” Saxony, which ranks first, excels with good scores in the sub-indicators childcare (rank 3), educational attainment of the working-age population (rank 1), and labor costs (rank 4).