Berlin, Germany

What Berlin is made of: the communities whose institutions are here, the sectors its 54,265 businesses sit in, the franchises already on the ground, and the services a newcomer could start.

54,265 businesses on file · 51 trades · 27 sectors · registry population 3,700,000 · built from geonet.berlin on 2026-10-27

Businesses54,265
0% carry coordinates
Specialised in6
trades above the national pattern
Places of worship0
Franchise brands49
already operating here
Known for

Brandenburg Gate. Berlin wall (torn down in 1990). EDM, dance music

Visiting rather than moving? The free guidebook for Berlin → — the free guidebook for this region: why go, what to see, what is open when it rains.

1

The local economy

What the business base is made of, what it is specialised in against the national pattern, and what that mix implies. This is the part a development office would read first.

Composition, not health. geonet records what trades exist and where; it does not record formation, closure, employment or revenue, so none of those appear here. What makes this economics rather than a directory is the NAICS coding: it lets the local mix be read against the BLS survival curves and against the 323 industry groups this research has screened.

The two biggest markets here

Every industry group on this page links through to its NAICS page, and to the screened market report where this research has one — that is what the trait-to-NAICS coding buys.

Business density14.7
businesses per 1,000 residents, against the registry population of 3,700,000
Breadth of the base1628
moderate — 40 industry groups, top three 58.1%
Survival the mix implies56.7%
at five years, against 51.4% for all private establishments
Coded to NAICS3.8%
of which 88.1% unambiguous

What this city is specialised in

Location quotient is this city's share of a trade divided by the same share across 26 metro tables worldwide. Above 1.25 is the conventional threshold for a local specialisation.

The base against the entry screen

Businesses by the entry signal of the industry group they sit in, from the /markets screen. A large "structure decides" share means most local trades are ones where being better than the incumbent does not by itself win. A trade is matched to the screened record at whatever level the research wrote it — the same code, a broader one, or a narrower one. Where a group holds several screened sub-markets the count is shown, because no single one of them speaks for the whole group.

Enter
9.4%
195 businesses
Caution
34.5%
719 businesses
Structure decides
56.1%
1,169 businesses
Not screened
0%
0 businesses

How to read the survival figure

Each sector's five-year establishment survival rate, weighted by how many of this city's businesses sit in that sector. It is a property of the MIX, not of these businesses — it says what survival this composition would imply at US private-sector rates, because no Canadian equivalent series exists.

Weighted over 100% of the coded base — public administration carries no curve. Source: Business Employment Dynamics — Table 7, Survival of private sector establishments by opening year, US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

And what it does not measure

A "mixed" trait is one that genuinely spans codes — "computers" covers systems design, repair and supply. The clear share is how much of this reading rests on unambiguous coding. Business density also reflects how completely the directory covers a place, not only how many businesses are in it — so it compares poorly between a city the register knows well and one it does not.

2

Who lives here, and who the city is for

The census: the only figures on this page that count people rather than businesses, and the three cohort readings they make possible.

No census subdivision is mapped for de-berlin in local/census-map.json, so this page carries no census figures. The mapping is kept explicit because Canada has several places called London, Toronto and Kelowna, and attaching the wrong one would put another city's demographics on this page.

P

People and languages

Who lives here and the languages business runs in: population and age from the statistics offices, and the share who can hold a conversation in English and other languages from the EU’s 2024 language survey. Each figure says whether it covers the city, the region or the whole country.

Population3,685,265
city 2025
Median age41.3
city (NUTS 3 DE300) 2025
Foreign-born or foreign citizens24%
2021
Employment rate76.7%
city (NUTS 2 DE30 Berlin) 2025

Languages spoken

  • Official: German
  • The census here does not ask about language, so no shares are given.

Doing business in English (and other languages)

Share of residents aged 15+ in DE who speak English as mother tongue or well enough to hold a conversation (D48.alllang). As a foreign language only (D48.otherlang): 65%. Fieldwork Sept-Oct 2023, published 2024.

Age: under 15 13.9% · 15–64 66.9% · 65 and over 19.2% (city (NUTS 3 DE300), 2025) Eurostat · 1,941,279 households

Not established: Germany's census has no home-language question; no Berlin language shares found.; Urban Audit lists an average household size of 0.12 for Berlin 2021, which is an error, so it is not used.

3

The communities the register shows

A community appears in the business register before it appears in prose — a national church, a society, a credit union, a newspaper. Those are counted as institutions, and they are what suggests residents. A restaurant serving a cuisine is counted separately as trade, because every city has those and they say nothing about who lives nearby. The ranking is by institutions.

CommunityInstitutions WorshipTrade Where it shows
German 2 — 368
trade on Seelower Str. 7 (2) · Hardenbergplatz 2 (2) · Katharina-Heinroth-Ufer 1 (2) · Burggrafenstr. 6 (2)
SCHOOL Deutsche Schulmarketing GmbH NL Berlin · GERMAN ESKRIMA ASSOCIATION
Italian — — 16
Thai — — 15
Chinese — — 9
South Asian — — 9
Swiss — — 7
Irish — — 6
Dutch — — 4
French — — 4
Korean — — 3
Spanish-speaking — — 3
Czech — — 3
Russian — — 2
Austrian — — 2
Indigenous — — 2
Japanese — — 1
Filipino — — 1
Portuguese — — 1
Hungarian — — 1
Romanian — — 1
Danish — — 1
Turkish — — 1
Scottish — — 1
4

Where the communities are

Streets, not neighbourhood names. The data knows that Greek institutions sit on one street and Greek restaurants on another; it does not know the word "Greektown", so it does not use it.

German

trade on Seelower Str. 7 (2) · Hardenbergplatz 2 (2) · Katharina-Heinroth-Ufer 1 (2) · Burggrafenstr. 6 (2)
5

What the city is made of

Every business on file, grouped by the sector it trades in. This is the economic-development view: where the 54,265 businesses actually are, and the specific trades inside each sector.

SectorBusinesses ShareWhat is in it
Tech 922 1.7% computers (158) · telecom (19)
Dining 685 1.3% restaurant (625) · steakhouse (25) · pizza (19) · pubs (9) · diner (4) · burgers (2) · orchard (1)
Travel 503 0.9% hotel (359) · travel agent (59) · airline (7) · parking (3) · bnb (1) · motel (1)
Business 246 0.5% consulting (164) · bank (5) · association (1) · foundation (1) · accounting (1)
Health 192 0.4%
Finance 170 0.3% bank (169)
Food 143 0.3% catering (142) · seafood (1)
Entertainment 112 0.2% museum (62) · games (31) · zoo (19)
Living 80 0.1% veterinary (72) · apartment (5) · fire safety (2) · cleaning (1)
Beauty 38 0.1% hair stylist (11)
Food & Beverage 30 0.1%
Automotive 23 0% autos (22)
Beverage 17 0% beer (17)
Media 12 0% signs (7) · advertising (5)
Retail 10 0% pet supply (6) · flowers (2) · photography (1) · antiques (1)
Athletic Sports 8 0%
Sports 8 0% martial arts (5) · boating marine (3)
Realty 6 0% realtor (6)
Logistics 4 0% packaging (3) · truck transportation (1)
Law 3 0% mediator (3)
6

The franchises already here

Brands from a register of 2,024 franchise systems, matched into this city by name. A high count is a signal in both directions: the territory works, and it may be taken.

33 of these brands are a single common word — Metro, Avenue, Budget — so their counts include businesses that merely share the word. They are marked rather than dropped.

BrandCategory HereWorldwide
Media Markt retail 6 361
Burger King fastfood 4 11,000
Thomas Cook travel 2 700
Anne Klein retail 1 —
Blockbuster Video video 1 5,900
Calvin Klein mensunderwear 1 —
Cash Converters retail 1 16
Christian Dior fashion 1 —
Embassy Suites upscalehotel 1 —
Hard Rock Cafe food 1 140
Harley Davidson locations motorcycle 1 —
Laura Ashley retail 1 —
Max Mara retail 1 —
Pizza Hut pizza 1 10,000
Tin Star food 1 50
Wal-Mart retail 1 6,500
Jacob name only retail 30 200
HESS name only fuel 11 1,250
Europcar name only car 7 2,825
Diana name only supermarket 6 3
Kaufland name only supermarket 6 600
Limited name only retail 3 —
Tiffany name only retail 3 150
Denner name only supermarket 2 580
EDEKA name only convenience 2 4,100
Esprit name only retail 2 —
Fotex name only retail 2 76
HEMA name only retail 2 200
IKEA name only retail 2 250
Intersport name only retail 2 60
Irma name only supermarket 2 71
Stockmann name only retail 2 7
Aldi name only supermarket 1 5,000
Bebe name only retail 1 —
Blackwell name only book 1 6
Champion name only supermarket 1 1,000
Coach name only luggage 1 —
Hofer name only supermarket 1 —
Lacoste name only — 1 —
Loeb name only supermarket 1 35
Makro name only home 1 33
Midas name only auto 1 1,800
Nissan name only auto 1 —
Papyrus name only retail 1 170
Radisson name only upscalehotel 1 —
Roxy name only retail 1 —
Volkswagen name only — 1 —
Weltbild name only book 1 300
Ziebart name only auto 1 500
7

Real estate as a local trade

Four unrelated jobs share the name: selling existing homes, owning and letting them, managing them for someone else, and building new ones. For anyone weighing a move or a licence these are the counts — and the ownership question goes to /property, which answers it building by building.

Real estate is a local job market in its own right, and four unrelated trades get the same name. Counts are businesses filed under each trade in the register, which lists a brokerage once however many agents work there — so this measures firms, not licensees.

Selling homes

5312
6 firms · LQ 0.05

Offices of agents and brokers — the resale market, and the biggest single trade in most Canadian cities.

Named in the register
  • Achilles Real Estate Development GmbH — Joachimstaler Str. 10-12
  • Biba Real Estate Trading Artists Agency GmbH — Spohrstr. 6
  • HomeLife Immobilien Real Estate — Heidenfeldstrasse 2
  • Rohrlapper and Co Berlin Real Estate Beteiligungsg — Clausewitzstr. 9
  • WBMI Real Estate AG — Friedrichstr. 95
  • WBMI Real Estate AG — Dircksenstr. 38

Owning and letting

5311
5 firms · LQ 0.27

Lessors of real estate: the buildings themselves, filed under the building rather than the owner.

Named in the register
  • Apartment No 1 in Berlin — Prinz-Handjery-Str. 42A
  • ARWOBAU — Dessauer Str. 3 (Nähe Potsdamer Platz)
  • Das Apartment Einrichtungen und — Grolmanstr. 36
  • Hiputh Apartmentvermietung am Nollendorfplatz GmbH — Else-Lasker-Schüler-Str. 16
  • Service KG Hindenburgdamm Apartmenthaus GmbH and Co — Aroser Allee 72

On "how many doors"

How many doors a landlord holds is not in any of this. The register files an apartment building under the building, not its owner, and carries no unit count; there is no open dataset of Canadian landlords by portfolio. Where this research has established ownership it is in the Berlin and Frankfurt am Main property record for the city, building by building, which is a different and much slower exercise.

8

Work on the go, mobile services

The Ultimate 411 half of local: everything where the customer does not have to come to you. Each service opens a page on Ultimate 411 to request a quote or book a time.

A shop needs the customer to walk in. These 186 services do the opposite — the mobile mechanic, the mobile groomer, the bookkeeper, the junk haul — and they are the ones a person can start without a lease. 0 of them already match a trait filed in this city's register.

The 186 Service=1 rows in search.local: work on the go, mobile services, where the provider travels to the customer. "present" counts businesses already filed under that exact trait name; a blank is a coverage gap, not proof of absence, because the two vocabularies were built separately.

9

Schools and colleges

wander.schools is a post-secondary table — universities and colleges. K-12 public and private schools are not in it, and only 7 of its 1,686 rows carry coordinates, so these are listed and not mapped.

InstitutionTypeStudentsFounded
ESMT Berlin University — —
Freie Berlin University — —
Humboldt University of Berlin University — —
Humboldt University University — —
TU Berlin University — —

In the business register

Where schooling shows up as a business rather than an institution — which is where K-12, tutoring and childcare appear.

school 1
10

Health and care

What a person moving a parent here would ask first. The register files clinics and pharmacies; it has no category for a hospital at all, so hospitals are matched by name and the limit is stated rather than hidden.

Medical clinics0
Pharmacies0
Dental practices0

Matched on the name "hospital"

  • DRK Hospital — Kastanienallee 37-38
  • Ingenium Hospital AG — Kurfürstendamm 74
  • Stiftung Hospital zum Heiligen Geist zu Berlin Spa — Ritterstr. 7-8
  • SFM Hospital Products GmbH — Segelfliegerdamm 89
  • FHC Fitness Health Center Betriebsgesellschaft mbH — Lindenstr. 31c
  • Privat Hospital Wannsee — Königsberger Str. 36a
  • HI Hospital Ingenieure Krankenhaustechnik — Pölnitzweg 118

geonet carries no 'hospital' trait, so these are matched on the business name. A distance-to-hospital figure needs a source that states hospital locations.

13

Funded & hiring here

Companies in this city that have raised money, and the careers pages of employers here, from the /employers research and the company database. For someone looking for work here, this is the shortlist.

Funded here — 8 companies have raised money

A fresh round usually means hiring. Largest raise first; the amount links to its source where one is on file, and the currency is as the source wrote it.

CompanyRaisedStaff hereJobs
n8n softwareComputer systems design and related services (except video game design and development)$240M—Careers →
ATAIBiotech$168M—Careers →
Taktile softwareNon-depository credit intermediation$79M$54M Series B led by Balderton Capital (Feb 2025); $79M total—Careers →
Hygraph softwareComputer systems design and related services (except video game design and development)$43M—Careers →
DatawalletFintech$40M—Careers →
Sanity Group softwareComputer systems design and related services (except video game design and development)$26.8M—Careers →
Neumark by NeufundFintech€12M——
BanxwareFintech$4M—Careers →

Careers pages — 35 more employers here

Each link goes to the company's own careers page or official job board, not a third-party listing site. Largest local staff first.

10 more careers pages in Berlin, Germany

Also based here — 1 researched company

Companies and software vendors from the market research whose home in the company database is this city, with the market they were researched in. No careers page is on file for these yet.

CompanyResearched inStaff here
GetYourGuide softwareScenic and sightseeing transportationTour & Activity Booking Platforms—
14

What this record cannot tell you

Named in full, because the gaps are the part most likely to be misread as an answer.

  • No census figures on this page: this region is not mapped to a census subdivision in local/census-map.json, so the community counts here are business-register institutions, which is a different measurement and cannot substitute for a population.
  • wander.schools is now readable, but it holds universities and colleges only and 1,679 of its 1,686 rows have no coordinates. K-12 public and private schools need a separate source — in Ontario the Ministry of Education school finder, in British Columbia the provincial school list. wander.citytowns, hotels and territories remain denied to the ru user.
  • No 'hospital' trait exists in geonet; distance to a hospital needs an external source such as StatCan's Open Database of Healthcare Facilities.
  • 100.0% of businesses here carry no coordinates, so a map or address lookup would miss them. Postal codes reach 100%.

Built from

  • geonet.berlin — the local business register
  • wander.regions — city name, population, metro
  • search.local — trait vocabulary and the come-to-you services
  • search.cozfranchises — 2,024 franchise brands