Leader Steglitz-Zehlendorf, bottom Neukölln: Berlin is deeply divided in health and social situation – Berlin
Berliners are living longer and longer. But when it comes to health and the social situation, the capital is deeply divided. Things are getting better in the inner city, but things are going downhill in the outskirts. This is the result of the new “Health and Social Structure Atlas Berlin 2022” of the Senate Health Administration for the development since 2013. An overview.
The Divided City
Berlin is not only deeply divided socially. The health situation of the residents also differs massively between the districts and quarters. The lowest health and social burdens occur in Steglitz-Zehlendorf: Nowhere is the unemployment rate lower, nowhere are there fewer apartments in so-called simple locations.
In terms of health, people in the south-west are also better off. Pankow, Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf and Treptow-Köpenick have favorable locations and social structures.
The situation in Reinickendorf is much worse, as well as in Mitte, Spandau and Neukölln, where the burden is even greater. These four counties have the highest percentages of welfare recipients, high initial mortality, and lower resident life expectancies. In Neukölln in particular, more than half of the 20 indicators used show up the highest loads compared to the other districts.
Districts with two faces
The districts themselves are often deeply divided. In Spandau and Mitte, about a quarter of the planning areas have a very favorable health situation. At the same time, many people in districts such as Gesundbrunnen, Wedding and Moabit, in Charlottenburg-Nord and in Siemensstadt, Haselhorst, the Spandau district, Wilhelmstadt and Falkenhagener Feld have to struggle with poverty and illness. It is particularly bad in North Neukölln, Gropiusstadt, North Kreuzberg, the prefabricated buildings of Marzahn-Hellersdorf and parts of Lichtenberg.
Uphill in the center, downhill on the outskirts
Almost half of the planning areas in the inner city show an upward trend. With the planning spaces of the outer city, it is only a quarter. Despite existing problems, the situation in the central Mitte and Kreuzberg districts has improved. In the outer city, more than every third area has a significantly lower ranking than in 2013. The planning areas with clearly negative dynamics are concentrated in Spandau, Reinickendorf and in the southern parts of Tempelhof-Schoeneberg and Neukölln.
Long life in the City West
Nowhere else in Berlin do residents live as old as in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. The average life expectancy there is 82.4 years, in Steglitz-Zehlendorf 82.36 years. Overall, life expectancy has increased – although the differences remain large: the average age of the residents of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg is only 79.8 years.
Steglitz-Zehlendorf keeps fit
The healthiest people are in the southwest of Berlin: In Steglitz-Zehlendorf, the health situation of the residents is the best, according to the evaluation of all indicators. With an average of 130 out of 100,000, nowhere else do so few people die before their 65th birthday. In almost all districts, the number of early deaths has fallen significantly. Only in Lichtenberg did it remain almost constant at 200 per 100,000 inhabitants, the highest value in the city.
Overall, the health situation in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Mitte, Neukölln and Spandau is poor. In Spandau, an average of 469 out of 100,000 people have to be treated in hospital for mental or behavioral disorders caused by alcohol – more than twice as many as in Steglitz-Zehlendorf.