Germany granted citizenship to a record 332,500 people in 2025, a 14% rise on the previous year, with Syrians making up the largest single group for the fifth year running, according to data released by the Federal Statistics Office on Wednesday.
One in five people naturalised last year was Syrian, though the number of Syrians gaining German citizenship fell by 21% compared with 2024, when many who arrived as refugees in 2015 and 2016 became eligible for naturalisation.
The statistics office attributed the overall increase to reforms introduced in June 2024 that cut the residency requirement for naturalisation from eight years to five and allowed individuals to hold dual citizenship.
After Syrians, the largest groups to naturalise were Turks, who accounted for 10% of the total at 34,100 people, and Russians at 6%, or 19,700 people.
Particularly strong year-on-year growth was recorded for Bosnians, up 126% to 8,800, Americans, up 100% to 6,600, and Albanians, up 97% to 6,100.
The number of people naturalised under restitution laws — which restore citizenship to individuals and their descendants stripped of it by Nazi Germany — rose 61% to 12,000.
(Reuters)