BERLIN, June 3 (Reuters) – Germany granted citizenship to a record 332,500 people last year, a 14% increase, with Syrians making up the largest group for the fifth year in a row, according to data released by the Federal Statistics Office on Wednesday.
• One in five people naturalised in 2025 was Syrian. However, compared with 2024, the number of Syrians gaining German citizenship dropped by 21%
• Many Syrians who arrived as refugees during 2015 and 2016 became eligible for naturalization during 2024
• The office attributes the increase to June 2024 reforms that reduced residency requirements for naturalization from eight years to five, as well as allowed individuals to hold dual citizenship
• After Syrians, the largest groups to naturalise were Turks (10%, or 34,100 people) and Russians (6%, or 19,700 people).
• Particularly strong year-over-year growth was also seen for Bosnians (126%, or 8,800 people), the United States (100%, or 6,600 people), and Albanians (97%, or 6,100 people).
• The number of people who naturalised through restitution laws that restore citizenship to individuals, and their descendants, who were stripped of it by Nazi Germany, rose by 61% to 12,000.
(Reporting by Miranda MurrayEditing by Ludwig Burger)
Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters.
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