The people of Bremen recognised the influence of hygiene on health at an early stage and therefore began to modernise the drinking water and sewage system. This made it possible to prevent outbreaks of disease. Long gone were the days when unfiltered drinking water was taken from the same river. In Bremen, the waterworks on the Stadtwerder ensured that the vast majority of the population only received filtered drinking water from the 1870s onwards. As a result, the cholera epidemic of 1892 was quickly averted. With the founding of the Bacteriological Institute, today's Institute of Hygiene, in March 1893, a further step was taken towards health prevention.
According to a study commissioned by the Bremen Chamber of Employees, 61,000 people, or over 15 per cent of the workforce, work in the health sector in the two-city state. This is 2.6 per cent more than nine years previously. At over 49,000, the majority of those in employment are subject to social insurance contributions, most of them women. In addition, there are over 8,600 marginally employed persons and more than 3,200 self-employed persons. In terms of population, Bremen is therefore one of the federal states that is most strongly characterised by employment in the healthcare industry. Bremen also has the highest number of doctors and psychotherapists per 100,000 inhabitants in Germany.
