Now it’s official: 332,500 people became German last year, according to new figures released on Wednesday by the Federal Statistics Office (Destatis). The data follows preliminary figures collated in May that indicated Germany was on course to log a record number of naturalisations. The latest figures show a 14 percent increase – equivalent to 40,500 additional people – compared with 2024, when 292,000 naturalisations were recorded. As a result, 2025 saw the highest number of people becoming German citizens since standardised statistics were introduced in
2000. At the same time, Germany’s total population actually shrank for the first time in 2025, largely because of a fall in immigration combined with a declining birth rate. Who are the new citizens? Syrian nationals were the largest group to receive German citizenship in 2025, continuing a trend that has been in place since 2021. One in five new German citizens (20 percent or 65,600 people) held Syrian citizenship. However, the number of Syrians naturalising fell by 21 percent compared with 2024. The next
largest groups were people holding Turkish citizenship (10 percent or 34,100 people) and Russian citizenship (6 percent or 19,700 people). For both nationalities, however, the number of naturalisations rose sharply compared with the previous year, increasing by 51 percent in each case. Officials say the hike in people gaining citizenship is largely due to the previous coalition government relaxing citizenship laws in the summer of 2024. The law now allows foreigners to hold multiple nationalities when becoming German, meaning they do not have to renounce
their previous nationality in most cases. Meanwhile, foreign residents can now apply for citizenship after five years of legal residence, down from the previous requirement of eight years. People applying also have to pass a citizenship test, prove they have B1 level German and show they can support themselves financially. The law change has paved the way for many people from the Turkish community in Germany to gain German citizenship. Before that, many people had held off because they didn’t want to give up their
previous citizenship. READ ALSO: Rising number of naturalisations in Germany ‘should be welcomed not reversed’ The number of people from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania becoming German citizens also rose significantly. Around 8,800 people with Bosnian citizenship were naturalised in 2025, an increase of 126 percent compared with the previous year. Meanwhile, 6,100 Albanian nationals became German citizens, up 97 percent. As already reported by The Local, around 69,000 people became German in the country’s five largest cities in 2025. In Berlin alone, more than
39,000 people naturalised. READ ALSO: German cities see soaring number of naturalisations as CDU pushes for tighter rules Overall, the average length of residence at the time of naturalisation stood at 12.4 years in 2025. Hakan Demir, SPD domestic policy expert, said the rise in naturalisations was “good news for democracy”. “More than 300,000 people have made Germany their new home – and can now call our country their home with equal rights and obligations,” he told The Local. “The figures prove that people who
have lived in Germany for decades have finally applied for citizenship. I am glad about these life decisions and about how the new citizenship law has enabled these opportunities.” How did people become German? In 2025, around 72 percent of successful applicants obtained citizenship through the standard route after at least five years of legal residence. The second most common pathway was the naturalisation of spouses and children, accounting for 19 percent of cases. READ ALSO: How to apply for German citizenship for a baby
born in Germany to foreign parents Together, these two routes made up 91 percent of all naturalisations in 2025, compared with 86 percent in 2024. The third most common category involved restitution cases. These are naturalisations granted to people who were deprived of German citizenship during the Nazi era, as well as their descendants. The number of such cases rose by 61 percent compared with the previous year, reaching 12,000 and accounting for 4 percent of all naturalisations. How many opted for fast-track citizenship? Last
October, the German coalition government of the centre-right CDU/CSU and centre-left SPD abolished the the fast-track path to citizenship that allowed well-integrated individuals with C1 level German to naturalise after three years. The new figures show that just 1,500 people became German via this route last year before the law was shelved – less than one percent of all naturalisations. In 2024, around 19,100 people gained citizenship this way, accounting for 7 percent of all naturalisations. In total, 467,400 applications for naturalisation were submitted in
the 2025. Applicants withdrew their applications in around 5 percent of cases, while only about 3 percent were rejected. A further 3 percent of cases were closed for other reasons, such as the applicant leaving Germany. READ ALSO: How many newly naturalised Germans have their citizenship revoked each year?
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