More than three decades after German reunification in 1990, the former East Germany has largely closed its employment gap with the west, while household incomes have moved closer. Registered unemployment in 2025 was 8.6% in the east versus 6.4% in the west, and employment rates were separated by only 1.6 percentage points. Among women, the employment gap had effectively disappeared. Yet eastern households remained poorer, with median disposable income of about €25,900 in 2024 compared with €28,100 in the west, and median gross annual earnings of €46,013 for full-time employees in 2025, excluding Berlin, versus €55,435 in the west. Lower rents in several eastern states partly offset the income shortfall. Wealth remains the largest divide: eastern households held around 49% of western households’ average net assets in 2023. Population loss, ageing, lower birth rates, continued east-to-west migration and investment per worker roughly one-quarter below western levels could make the remaining gaps harder to close. The disparities have contributed to support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which sought further gains in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after winning that month’s Saxony-Anhalt state election.