Recent statistics reveal that over a quarter of Germany’s population, approximately 22 million individuals, has an “immigration background.”
According to a study by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the percentage of residents in Germany with an immigration history increased by 0.5% last year, reaching a high of 26.3%.
This classification includes individuals who immigrated to Germany from 1950 onward or those with two immigrant parents.
This definition is stricter than the prior one known as ‘immigrant background,’ which included anyone who is either an immigrant or has one immigrant parent.
Data from Destatis indicates that an additional 4.2 million persons born in Germany last year have at least one immigrant parent, accounting for 5% of the population. Projections suggest that by 2025, nearly a third of all residents will either be immigrants or have an immigrant parent.
Overall, about 19.8% of the population, or 16.4 million individuals, are direct immigrants to Germany as of 2025. This marks an increase of 281,000 people, or 1.7%, compared to the previous year.
Migration rates remain high but have moderated somewhat from earlier years, averaging 888,000 migrants annually between 2021 and 2024, which represents a yearly increase of 6.2%.
Regardless, the long-term impact of Germany’s immigration policies has been substantial, with the foreign-born population growing by two-thirds in the last two decades alone.
Since 2005, the number of individuals with an immigration background has surged by nearly 9 million, moving from 13 million to 21.8 million last year. This has raised their percentage of the total population from 16% to 26.3% over that time frame.
The largest immigrant demographics in Germany include 1.5 million from Poland, 1.5 million from Turkey, 1.3 million from Ukraine, 1 million from Russia, and another 1 million from Syria.
Statistical analyses show that the immigrant population tends to be younger than that of native Germans, with over one-third of individuals aged 25 to 34 (36%) having an immigration background.
Destatis also noted that in 2025, the average age of those with an immigration history in Germany will be 38.2 years, while for those without such a background, it will be 47.6 years.
Although the German government has recently promoted open borders as advantageous or necessary for the economy, this perspective is challenged by the reality that immigrants represent a disproportionately large segment of the long-term unemployed. In fact, nearly half of the national welfare support is allocated to non-Germans.
Cities like Aschaffenburg, Magdeburg, Mannheim, Munich, and Solingen illustrate this issue.
