German naturalisations hit record 332,500 in 2025, driven by dual-citizenship reform

A fifth consecutive annual record

Germany naturalised 332,500 foreign nationals in 2025, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reported on Wednesday. The figure is 14% higher than in 2024 and marks the fifth straight year of increases. It is also the first time the annual total has exceeded 300,000 since the statistics series began in 2000.

Noch nie seit der Einführung der Statistik im Jahr 2000 waren innerhalb eines Jahres mehr als 300.000 Personen eingebürgert worden.

Syrians remain the largest group but their numbers fall

Syrians again formed the biggest cohort, accounting for one in five naturalisations (65,600 people, or 20% of the total). Their number dropped 21% compared with 2024, however. Destatis attributes the sustained high level to the fact that many of the protection-seekers who arrived between 2014 and 2016 now meet the residency requirements. Syrians had lived in Germany for an average of 7.9 years at the time of naturalisation.

Turkish and Russian naturalisations jump by half

Naturalisations of Turkish citizens rose 51% to 34,100 (10% of the total), while those of Russian citizens also climbed 51% to 19,700 (6%). The statistical office links the sharp increases to the citizenship-law reform that took effect at the end of June 2024. Since then, multiple citizenship has been generally permitted; previously, applicants normally had to give up their original nationality.

Bei beiden Staatsangehörigkeiten stieg die Zahl der Einbürgerungen allerdings um mehr als die Hälfte gegenüber dem Vorjahr.

Turkish nationals had spent an average of 24.1 years in Germany before naturalisation, Russians 14.1 years.

Smaller groups see even faster growth

Several smaller nationalities recorded triple-digit percentage increases. Bosnian naturalisations grew 126% to 8,800, US naturalisations doubled to 6,600 (up 100%), and Albanian naturalisations rose 97% to 6,100.

How the process works and what is fading away

The most common route was the standard naturalisation (Regelfalleinbürgerung), which requires at least five years of lawful residence and accounted for 72% of cases. Co-naturalisation of spouses and children made up another 19%, and restitution cases (Wiedergutmachung) for people stripped of citizenship during the Nazi era and their descendants represented 4%.

The so-called turbo-naturalisation track, which allowed particularly well-integrated foreigners to apply after just three years, was scrapped by the current black-red coalition government at the end of October 2025. Only 1,500 people were naturalised on that basis in 2025, down from 19,100 the year before.

Applications and the political debate

A total of 467,400 naturalisation applications were lodged in 2025, according to preliminary data. Of the 371,100 procedures completed, roughly 90% resulted in naturalisation, about 3% were rejected, and the remainder ended with the applicant withdrawing the request, moving abroad, or dying.

The overall trend had already become public in late May. Alexander Throm, domestic-policy spokesman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, called for tighter rules, while the SPD viewed the rising numbers as a positive signal that more people who meet all the requirements are becoming German.