Statistics - Approximately one in five people in Baden-Württemberg is a foreigner
Turkish, Italian, Romanian, Ukrainian: The number of people with foreign citizenship in Baden-Württemberg reached nearly 2.1 million by the end of last year. At the end of 2022, there were still 2.01 million foreign citizens living in the Southwest. Their share in the total population grew, according to the Statistical Office, from 17.8 to 18.5 percent.
Large differences between city and countryside
There are significant differences regionally. The office based in Fellbach near Stuttgart explains this with the fact that foreign citizens often live disproportionately close to workplaces and therefore in larger cities. "This regional pattern was certainly also reinforced by the fact that, where many people of a particular nationality already live, more often join them."
The foreign population ratio in Pforzheim was the highest in the country as of December 31, 2023, at 31.2 percent. It was followed by the city of Heilbronn with 30.5 percent and Stuttgart with 27.8 percent. The lowest ratio was 12.8 percent in both the Neckar-Odenwald-Kreis and the Main-Tauber-Kreis. In the Landkreis Biberach, 13.5 percent of the population do not have a German passport. The statistics do not include foreigners who also have German citizenship. The data is not based on the 2022 census. Therefore, the proportion of immigrants in Pforzheim is now 39 percent, as the Statistical Federal Office recently reported.
Reasons for migration change
The number of foreign female and male citizens has increased significantly, according to the Office, from the mere 60,000 in the founding year of the Southwest State in 1952. "The reasons why people came to Baden-Württemberg in the past seven decades were diverse and changed over the decades." In the 1960s and 1970s, labor migration was the focus, while in the 1990s, increasing asylum applicant numbers and refugees from the Yugoslav civil war shaped the picture. Since the spring of 2022, refugees from Ukraine have dominated the migration scene.
Approximately 369,800 refugees were among the nearly 2.1 million foreign citizens registered in the Southwest by the end of the previous year, according to the statistics. Of these, about 124,720 were from Ukraine. According to the Aliens Registration Office, refugees are foreign females and males who, according to their statements, stay in Germany due to international law, humanitarian, or political reasons.
Among them are people who are in Germany for the processing of an asylum procedure or who already have a recognized protection status. But also those who stay in Germany after a rejection in the asylum procedure or after the loss of humanitarian residence status (refugees with rejected protection status).
Seeking asylum-seekers made up 3.3 percent of the total population in Baden-Württemberg according to the data. Pforzheim led the way with a share of 6.4 percent, surpassing Baden-Baden (6.0 percent) and Heilbronn (5.0 percent). The Zollernalbkreis, Ostalbkreis, and Karlsruhe district had the lowest quotas at 2.4 percent each.
Majority of Male Asylum-Seekers
Regional patterns were not clear-cut, according to experts. While the share of asylum-seekers in the total population was highest in some city districts, Heidelberg and Mannheim, with 2.7 and 2.8 percent respectively, were among the districts with the lowest shares.
The Federal Ministry of Migration explained the differences by stating that asylum-seekers who no longer have to comply with a residence requirement can distribute themselves freely throughout the country depending on housing and labor market conditions, as well as personal ties and preferences. Pforzheim apparently is a preferred destination for many asylum-seekers. The "Diaspora Communities of the Yezidi ethnic group and Iraqi nationals" in Pforzheim could provide an explanation. However, Pforzheim had not historically had an unusually high number of asylum-seekers assigned to it.
According to the Statistical Office, the majority of asylum-seekers at the end of 2023 were male (56 percent). However, there were significant differences in gender distribution among nationalities. For instance, among those from Gambia, as many as 88 percent were men. In contrast, nearly two-thirds (61 percent) of Ukrainian asylum-seekers were women.
- Despite living in various cities across Baden-Württemberg, the highest percentage of foreign citizens was reported in the city of Pforzheim by the end of 2023.
- The city of Heilbronn, located in Baden-Württemberg, also had a significant percentage of foreign citizens, reaching 30.5% by the end of the year.
- In contrast, the Neckar-Odenwald-Kreis and the Main-Tauber-Kreis, both located in Baden-Württemberg, had the lowest percentage of foreign citizens, at 12.8% each.
- The city of Fellbach, located near Stuttgart in Baden-Württemberg, explains the regional differences in foreign population ratios by the proximity of foreign citizens to job centers.
- The Landkreis Biberach, also in Baden-Württemberg, had 13.5% of its population without German citizenship, as reported by the statistics.
- Asylum-seekers from Ukraine made up a significant portion of the foreign population in Baden-Württemberg, with approximately 124,720 registered by the end of the previous year.
- Regional patterns in asylum-seeker distribution were not consistent, with some city districts having a higher share of asylum-seekers than others, such as Pforzheim with 6.4%.
- Notably, the majority of asylum-seekers in Baden-Württemberg at the end of 2023 were male (56%), but there were substantial differences in gender distribution among different nationalities, with nearly two-thirds (61%) of Ukrainian asylum-seekers being women.
