Maps of Inequality in Marburg – Inequality and Distributive Politics

By Nils Strecker and Miquel Pellicer

Inequality and distributive politics are relevant everywhere, not only in distant and foreign places. We wish to bring awareness to this topic to our community: the town of Marburg. We wish to disseminate information on inequality and politics in the form of maps. As a first step we provide a limited number of maps that capture particularly important aspects of our topic: spatial inequalities in socioeconomic outcomes and in political participation. Overtime, we hope to add more resources, including the spatial distribution of government spending, and of citizen political preferences. We hope this site will grow to become a resource that helps citizens and local politicians to engage further on the topic of inequality and distributive politics.

Glossary

¹Population: This layer displays population data in a 100m grid, as collected by the federal and state statistical offices in the course of the 2022 census. Larger circles represent a larger population in that area.

²Welfare: This layer displays the SGB II ratio, which is defined as the proportion of SGB II recipients among the population aged 0 to 64. SGB II payments are basic social assistance for individuals who are classified as fit for employment. Data was provided by the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit) and is displayed on the level of Marburg’s 74 voting districts.

³Education: On the level of Marburg’s 74 voting districts, this layer displays the share of inhabitants which are employed and have acquired an academic degree at an institution for higher education (e.g. a university). On the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), this covers ISCED levels 6 (bachelor’s degree), 7 (master’s degree) and 8 (PhD). Note that this only includes inhabitants of each district that are dependently employed. Children, retirees, as well as unemployed and self-employed inhabitants are not considered in this data.

⁴Rent: This layer displays the mean net basic rent per sq m in a 100m grid, as collected by the federal and state statistical offices in the course of the 2022 census.

⁵Voter turnout (in person): This layer displays the in person voter turnout in each in person voting district in the latest state election (October 2023). The data is published by the municipal election office of Marburg.

⁶Voter turnout (in person + mail ballots): This layer displays the voter turnout in person and by mail in each statistical district in the latest state election (October 2023). The raw data is published by the municipal election office of Marburg. Due to a few differences between the geographical dimensions of in-person and by-mail voting districts, this layer cannot be displayed on the level of voting districts and some numbers have to be estimated. This could lead to very minor inaccuracies in the total turnout numbers for some of the statistical districts.

⁷AfD vote share (in person): This layer displays the share of votes cast in person for the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), the most prominent right-wing party in Germany, in each in person voting district in the latest state election (October 2023). The data is published by the municipal election office of Marburg.

⁸AfD vote share (in person + mail ballots): This layer displays the share of votes cast in person and by mail for the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), the most prominent right-wing party in Germany, in each statistical district in the latest state election (October 2023). The raw data is published by the municipal election office of Marburg. Due to a few differences between the geographical dimensions of in-person and by-mail voting districts, this layer cannot be displayed on the level of voting districts and some numbers have to be estimated. This could lead to very minor inaccuracies in the total turnout numbers for some of the statistical districts.