A recent survey conducted for the Higher Education Ranking by the Center for University Development (CHE) revealed key insights into the living situation and travel habits of university students. Of the 87,000 students who participated, who reported on their living arrangements and commute to higher education institutions, nearly 27.9 percent indicated they still live with their parents. This represents a slight decrease of 0.5 percentage points compared to the 2023 assessment.
The proportion living in private rentals is similarly high, standing at 27.8 per cent. Roughly one quarter of all surveyed students reside in shared flat accommodations (24.8 per cent, excluding dormitories). Student dormitories are the least common option, used by 15.2 per cent of the respondents.
Gender differences are evident in living arrangements. Male students are more likely to still live at home, with about one-third of men doing so, contrasted with less than a quarter of female students.
Significant regional variations exist. In Saarland, 42.8 per cent of the students reported living with their parents. However, in the Baden-Württemberg towns of Nürtingen and Göppingen, the proportion is much higher, reaching 76.4 per cent and 73.1 per cent, respectively. Similarly, around 70 per cent of Bachelor students in Gütersloh, North Rhine-Westphalia, still live with their parents.
Regarding shared living, Thuringia recorded the highest rate nationally at 33.2 per cent, with Weimar being the leading location. Here, half of the surveyed students stated they live in a shared flat outside of a university dormitory.
The study author, Cort-Denis Hachmeister, noted that students attending universities of applied sciences (FHs) often live above the national average with their parents, regardless of the size of the city. For university students, the situation is more dependent on the location; in congested areas with high living costs, many opt for the affordable “Hotel Mama,” while in medium-sized university cities (up to 100,000 inhabitants), shared flats remain the most popular choice.
Presently, close to two-thirds of all surveyed students live directly on or immediately near the campus. This figure is even higher in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where nearly nine out of every ten students do so. Furthermore, 30.4 per cent of students nationwide live within a 50-kilometre radius of their campus. The number of students required to travel more than 50 kilometres to their university has dropped compared to the last survey, now standing at 6.4 per cent.
Many students are prioritizing sustainable transport options. Over half of the respondents regularly use public transport (57.2 per cent), a figure that represents an increase of nearly six percentage points over three years ago. Only a quarter of students regularly use a car or motorcycle for commuting. Cycling is particularly popular in Greifswald (87.8 per cent), Münster (78.4 per cent), and Göttingen (73.4 per cent). Public transport sees heavy use in cities such as Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart, and Ulm, as well as in the Munich metropolitan area. Conversely, more than half of students in Thuringia walk to the university, while a large proportion of students in Saarland rely regularly on cars.
