page_title: Dortmund
section_title: Livability and quality of life
hierarchical_section_title: Dortmund / Livability and quality of life
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Stadtpanorama Dortmund
context_page_description: Dortmund is with a population of 603,609 inhabitants as of 2020, the third-largest city of Germany's most populous federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia and Germany's eighth-largest city. It is the largest city of the Ruhr, Germany's largest urban area with some 5.1 million inhabitants, as well as the largest city of Westphalia. On the Emscher and Ruhr rivers, it lies in the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region and is considered the administrative, commercial, and cultural centre of the eastern Ruhr. Dortmund is the second largest city in the Low German dialect area after Hamburg.
  Founded around 882, Dortmund became an Imperial Free City. Throughout the 13th to 14th centuries, it was the "chief city" of the Rhine, Westphalia, and the Netherlands Circle of the Hanseatic League. During the Thirty Years' War, the city was destroyed and decreased in significance until the onset of industrialization. The city then became one of Germany's most important coal, steel and beer centres. Dortmund consequently was one of the most heavily bombed cities in Germany during World War II. The devastating bombing raids of 12 March 1945 destroyed 98% of buildings in the inner city center.
context_section_description: In November 2017, according to a study by data of the German National Statistics Office, the National Employment Agency, Mercer, Handelsblatt, Numbeo and Immowelt, Dortmund was ranked on position seven of the most livable cities in Germany for expats. In September 2017, The New York Times praised the city of Dortmund, which has been adapting since the collapse of its century old steel and coal industries and has shifted to high technology biomedical technology, micro systems technology and other services, as the hidden star of structural change providing a good quality of life for employees. According to the 2017 Global Least & Most Stressful Cities Ranking Dortmund is one of the least stressful cities in the world. It's ranked 27th out of 150, between Copenhagen and Vancouver, and is highly ranked in the categories traffic & public transport, gender equality and debt per capital.
  Like a Phoenix Rising from the Ashes and exemplary for structural transformation - This was the title of an article in the online version on Neue Zürcher Zeitung of the urban livability and new exceptional architecture in Dortmund.
  In a 2015/2016 survey centred on student life in Germany, Dortmund ranked as seventh-best.
  In a 2012 study of the most livable biggest cities in Germany, Dortmund ranked on position ten between Nurmberg and Stuttgart and first of all large cities in Germany due to sport, gastronomy and shopping opportunities.
  In 2009, Dortmund was classified as a Node city in the Innovation Cities Index published by 2thinknow and in 2014 acclaimed as the most sustainable city in Germany.
caption: Dortmund is one of the least stressful cities in the world
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