German naturalisations hit record 332,500 in 2025 as citizenship reform takes full effect

Germany recorded 332,500 naturalisations in 2025, a 14 percent increase over 2024 and the highest annual total since the unified national count began in 2000, the Federal Statistical Office reported on Wednesday. The surge marks the fifth consecutive year of rising numbers and is attributed primarily to the modernised citizenship law that took effect in June 2024, which reduced the minimum residency period from eight to five years and removed the previous restriction on holding multiple nationalities.

Berlin leads the urban boom

Berlin saw the most dramatic increase among the federal states, naturalising 39,041 people in 2025, a jump of nearly 80 percent compared to the previous year. The capital's Landesamt für Einwanderung (State Office for Immigration) centralised what had been a district-level process, nearly doubled its staffing, and digitised many steps, including identity verification. The office received 42,517 applications, rejected 1,934, and saw roughly 1,700 withdrawn by applicants. The average naturalised person in Berlin had lived in Germany for 11.2 years and was 32.4 years old.

Syrians remain the largest group

People of Syrian origin again formed the biggest cohort, accounting for roughly one in five of all naturalisations nationwide. However, the absolute number of Syrians naturalised fell by 21 percent compared to 2024. Their average period of residence in Germany at the time of naturalisation was 7.9 years, reflecting the arrival of many protection seekers between 2014 and 2016 who now meet the eligibility criteria. Turkish nationals were the second-largest group at 10 percent of the total, followed by Russians at 6 percent. Both groups saw increases of 51 percent year-on-year, a rise the statistics office linked directly to the new dual-citizenship provision.

Sharp rises from the Balkans and the United States

Several other nationalities posted striking percentage gains. Naturalisations of Bosnian citizens climbed 126 percent to 8,800, while US citizens obtaining German passports doubled to 6,600. Albanian naturalisations rose 97 percent to 6,100. In Berlin, the number of Americans naturalised nearly quadrupled from 283 in 2024 to 1,090 in 2025. Iranian naturalisations in the capital almost doubled to 1,619.

Special-integration pathway collapses

A parallel trend was the near-collapse of naturalisations granted on the basis of special integration achievements. Only 1,500 people were naturalised under this accelerated route in 2025, down from 19,100 the year before. The drop followed legislative changes at the end of October 2025 that rescinded the option.

Regional snapshots

Brandenburg naturalised 4,581 people, a 22 percent increase over 2024, with Syrians making up nearly 27 percent of recipients. The average residence duration there was 11.3 years and the average age 32.1 years. Hessen recorded its second-highest annual figure at 20,036, down from its 2024 record of 24,915 but still well above the 2000–2023 average of 14,122. The Saarland registered a slight decline of 2.7 percent to 2,711 naturalisations, remaining near its all-time high. North Rhine-Westphalia alone naturalised 3,841 Russians, a 67.4 percent increase.

What the reform changed

The 2024 reform, passed by the previous traffic-light coalition government, cut the standard residency requirement from eight to five years and made dual citizenship the default rather than the exception, provided applicants meet other criteria including financial self-sufficiency. The Federal Statistical Office noted that 91 percent of all 2025 naturalisations fell under the standard residency rule or the co-naturalisation of spouses and children. The average residence duration across all naturalised persons stood at 12.4 years.

It is probably a 'mixed' group of Russian naturalisation applicants.