Record-breaking rise in citizenship grants
Starting from the year 2000, there's been a continuous conversation about how many individuals have been granted German citizenship. And guess what? Last year, the numbers reached an all-time high! The Federal Statistical Office even confirmed this exciting news. Naturalizations went up by 19% compared to the year before, which itself had already seen a 28% growth. In total, around 200,100 foreigners became German citizens in 2023, that's quite a lot, right?
The latest statistics also revealed that there were 157 different nationalities represented among these new German citizens. Unsurprisingly, the top five countries - Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Romania, and Afghanistan - accounted for over half of all naturalizations. The average age of these new citizens was just 29.3 years, way lower than the general population. What's more, 45% of them were females, slightly less than the overall population.
While the Syrians topped the list, comprising more than a third of all new citizens, their numbers rose by 56% from the year before. In the previous year, the Syrian citizens saw an increase of 100% compared to previous years, and in 2021, the growth was an astounding seven times higher!
The statistic doesn't surprise the officials, though, since they explained that this surge was linked to the massive influx of Syrian asylum seekers between 2014 and 2016. The bulk of these asylum seekers are now meeting the requirements for German citizenship, including language skills and residency duration.
Iraqi nationals experienced a 57% increase in naturalizations, whereas Turkish nationals saw a decline of 25%. Naturalizations of Romanians grew by 8%, while new Afghan citizens were up by 55%.
The number of Ukrainian nationals receiving German citizenship saw a 6% increase to 5,900 in 2023. Surprisingly, this figure nearly tripled from 2021 to 2022 in the context of the Russian invasion, going from 900 to 5,600. Ukrainians accounted for a 3% share of all naturalizations in 2023.
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The countries with the highest number of naturalizations, including Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Romania, and Afghanistan, collectively accounted for more than half of all new German citizens in 2023, demonstrating a significant trend in immigration. In contrast, Turkey saw a decrease in naturalizations, while Ukraine experienced a 6% increase, mainly due to the Russian invasion. The Federal Statistical Office in Germany confirmed that these trends were reflected in their records.
Source: www.ntv.de
