On December, 18th 2007 the business paper „Focus Money“ published the results of its nationwide county-ranking. According to Focus Money the ranking is based on the latest data of all statistical regional authorities in Germany and provides information about seven factors concerning the economic power of each region. The position of a municipality in each factor ranking is added up to a total ranking. Therefore the county with the lowest score is the winner of the total ranking.

In the comment of regio gmbh in the Nordwestzeitung on February, 6th 2008 Mr. Seeber is critizising the bad grading of the northwestern part of Germany in the ranking. He emphasises the Focus Money analysis would have been more precise if the assessment criteria had been chosen more differentiated. He points out not only the choice and the weighting but also using longer time series are crucial factors in an exacting comparison of regions.

Further information are available in German.