Kommen together

By THE DATA TEAM

THIS weekend Germans will mark the 25th anniversary of the breaching of the Berlin Wall with a celebratory bash. A generation on, Germans still debate the progress that has been made in bringing east and west together. In terms of motorways and other infrastructure, the east sparkles today. In certain social indicators, such as women’s participation in the workforce or the enrolment of toddlers in crèches, it even leads the west. But overall, according to polls, eastern Germans are still less content than westerners. After years of net migration from east to west (which only recently abated), parts of the east are depopulated, especially in rural areas. Eastern Germany’s GDP per head is still only 67% of that in western Germany; its unemployment rate is still markedly higher. Yet full convergence between east and west is not a fair benchmark. The remaining east-west divide is now no more pronounced than the socio-economic fault lines that cross Belgium, Italy or Spain. That surely counts as success.