Around one in seven adult Germans has said they plan to emigrate within the next five years, according to a survey by the polling institute INSA.
The 14 per cent recorded corresponds to roughly 8.2 million people, measured against an adult population of about 59.2 million. Some 68 per cent said they had no intention of leaving, while 18 per cent were undecided or gave no answer.
The gap between age groups was wide. Among those aged 30 to 39, 27 per cent said they planned to go, against 24 per cent of 18 to 29-year-olds and 4 per cent of those over 70.
The share fell steadily across the middle of the range, standing at 15 per cent for people in their forties and 12 per cent for those in their fifties.
Party preference divided respondents almost as sharply. Supporters of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) were the most likely to say they wanted out, at 19 per cent, followed by backers of the Left Party on 18 per cent.
Only 10 per cent of Green voters and 7 per cent of Free Democratic Party (FDP) supporters said the same. The poll was published on July 28 by German online outlet Apollo News, which commissioned it.
The same survey found 39 per cent believed German media reported too little on violent crime committed by foreigners, against 18 per cent who took the opposite view. About a third thought coverage was neither excessive nor insufficient.
Official statistics point to a smaller, though rising, real-world outflow. Germany has recorded a net loss of its own nationals every year since 2005.
In 2025 that loss reached 97,000 people, up from 81,000 the previous year, the Federal Statistical Office said. The most popular destinations were Switzerland with 23,000 departures, followed by Austria with 14,000 and Spain with 10,000.
Overall migration remained strongly positive. Germany registered about 1.48 million arrivals and 1.25 million departures in 2025, leaving net immigration of 235,000, a fall of 45 per cent on 2024.
Stated intentions and completed moves are not the same thing. Spread over a single year, the INSA finding would imply some 1.6 million departures, several times the number the authorities actually record.
Researchers have long noted that survey questions about emigration capture dissatisfaction as much as firm planning. A separate study by the Federal Institute for Population Research found that Germans who did move abroad reported higher life satisfaction afterwards.
The poll landed amid broader discontent with the German Government. INSA has also found that around three quarters of Germans are dissatisfied with Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s coalition and that only about one in three would currently vote for the three parties in it.
