Published On 3/6/2026
Data issued by the Federal Statistical Office in Germany on Wednesday revealed that the country granted citizenship to an unprecedented number of 332,500 people last year, an increase of 14% compared to the previous year.
Syrians constituted the largest group for the fifth year in a row, as one out of every five people who obtained citizenship in 2025 was Syrian. Despite this lead, the number of Syrians who obtained German citizenship decreased by 21% compared to 2024.
This is due to the fact that a large number of Syrians who arrived in Germany for the purpose of asylum in 2015 and 2016 had already become eligible in 2024 to obtain citizenship.
The office attributed this record total increase to the legislative reforms carried out in June 2024, as these amendments reduced the residency requirements required to obtain citizenship from 8 years to only 5 years, and also allowed individuals to hold dual citizenship.
Regarding the ranking of other nationalities, the Turks came in second place as the largest group after the Syrians, with their number reaching 34,100 people, equivalent to 10%, followed by the Russians in third place, whose number reached 19,700 people, equivalent to 6% of the total.
The data also witnessed remarkably strong growth on an annual basis for other nationalities, as the number of Bosnians who obtained citizenship increased by 126% to reach 8,800 people, and the number of Americans increased by 100% to reach 6,600 people, while the number of Albanians rose by 97% to 6,100 people.
In the same context, the number of people who obtained citizenship through citizenship restoration laws, which are laws that restore citizenship to individuals and their descendants who were stripped of it by Nazi Germany, increased by 61%, reaching 12,000.
