Germany has broken its naturalisation record once again, with 332,500 people receiving German citizenship in 2025, according to fresh data released by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) in Wiesbaden.
This was up from the previous record of 291,955 set in 2024 — an increase of 14 per cent, or 40,500 people — and marks the fifth consecutive year of rising numbers. It is the first time that more than 300,000 people have been naturalised in a single year since the statistics began in 2000.
Of the 371,100 naturalisation procedures completed in 2025, 90 per cent ended in naturalisation, according to provisional results. Destatis recorded a total of 467,400 citizenship applications over the year.
In 5 per cent of all cases, applicants withdrew their naturalisation application. In about 3 per cent of the procedures, the naturalisation application was rejected. A further 3 per cent or so of the proceedings ended in another way, such as the death of the applicant or their departure abroad.
The surge is a direct result of the major citizenship reform from the previous progressive government that took effect at the end of June 2024, which reduced the standard residency requirement from eight to five years, made dual citizenship the norm and eased other integration criteria.
Syrians continued to form the largest group receiving German passports by a wide margin, accounting for one in five new citizens (20 per cent, or 65,600).
Under the new rules, the overwhelming majority of those naturalised kept their original nationality. Die Welt reported that in many large cities, between 85 per cent and 98 per cent of new citizens held dual nationality.
Before the progressive reforms, only citizens of other EU member states and Switzerland were allowed to keep their previous nationality.
Conservative politicians argue that rapidly granting full voting rights to hundreds of thousands of people from very different cultural and religious backgrounds — often after just a few years in the country — risks fundamentally altering Germany’s identity and social cohesion.
Critics point to persistent problems with integration, parallel societies in major cities and rising crime rates in migrant-heavy areas as signs that the policy is moving too quickly.
Christian Democratic Union (CDU) interior expert Günter Krings called for an amendment to the citizenship law. “The fact that new naturalisations in such high numbers lead to dual citizenship is not a good development,” Krings told the AFP news agency. “We have to react legislatively here.” He said there was an “urgent need for action”.
“Especially in the case of serious criminals and extremists who commit crimes after naturalisation, there is a high public interest in the loss of German citizenship.”
Alice Weidel, co-leader of Alternative for Germany (AfD), said: “New citizens exploit the advantages of being German without pledging allegiance to Germany. For the AfD, it’s clear: Mass naturalisations must be stopped, and naturalisations that have already taken place must be put under scrutiny.”
She also asked: “Is this what Merz means by ‘migration turnaround’? We need an immediate naturalization freeze!”
Supporters of the reform, mainly on the Left, defend the figures as a necessary response to labour shortages and demographic ageing.
