17.3% of the Population in Germany Has Immigrated Since 1950, Authorities Reveal

The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) has revealed that 14.2 million people living in Germany had migrated to the country since 1950, taking the total share of immigrants to 17.3 per cent, while another 4.7 million people (5.7 per cent) were direct descendants of immigrants, indicating people that were born in Germany but both their parents had immigrated to Germany since 1950.

Destatis also points out that almost 19 million people in Germany in 2021 had an immigration history, representing 23 per cent of the population, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

Currently, a total of 82.3 million people live in Germany, with 72 per cent of the total having no immigration history and immigrants representing 17 per cent. Moreover, descendants represent six per cent of the population, and five per cent have one immigrant parent.

In general, the number of immigrants in the country surpasses the EU average, which stands at 10.3 per cent, while immigrants in Germany represent 17.3 per cent of the population. These rates rank Germany seventh on this list, following Ireland and Austria, with 18.7 and 19.3 per cent of the population consisting of immigrants, respectively.

Furthermore, the top four countries that have the highest share of immigration population include Luxembourg, Sweden and Cyprus, with 20.7, 21.9 and 22.1 per cent of their population being immigrants, respectively. Malta holds the first rank, with an immigrant population of 22.3 per cent.

On the other hand, countries with the lowest rates include Poland, Romania and Bulgaria – all having less than one per cent of the immigrant population.

Germany’s population reached a high record of 84.3 million people in 2022, and there were 1.1 million more people living in the country. One of the reasons for this increasing population in Germany has been cited as immigration that compensated for a low birth rate and ageing population, especially with a high number of incoming Ukrainian nationals that occurred last year.

A total of 740,000 more inhabitants were recorded in Germany just during the first half of the year, with this number being fuelled by crises in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Previously, the Federal Ministry of the Interior’s (BMI) migration report shows that net migration to Germany surged in 2021with the percentage of people that have immigrated to Germany reaching 63.8 per cent. The majority of immigrants came from Romania and Poland, with 14.4 and 7.3 per cent of all immigrants being from these countries, respectively. In addition, 5.4 per cent of immigrants come from Bulgaria.