Federal Office of Statistics
Significantly fewer immigrants from Ukraine in Germany
In October 2023, most Ukrainians lived in the most populous federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia (234,000), Bavaria (168,000), and Baden-Württemberg (159,000). photo
© Michael Kappeler/dpa
With the start of the war in Ukraine, many Ukrainians also fled to Germany. In the second year of the war, however, the number fell significantly.
In 2023, significantly fewer people will come from Ukraine Germany drew than last year. According to figures from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) in Wiesbaden, 277,000 people moved from Ukraine to Germany and 156,000 moved back. “This results in a net immigration of 121,000 people,” Destatis announced on Thursday.
In 2022, the year the Russian attack on Ukraine began, the Federal Office counted 1.1 million arrivals and 138,000 departures (net immigration: 960,000). Even with the sharp decline last year, the number of immigrants from Ukraine was higher than in the years before the Russian war of aggression (2021: 6,000, 2020: 5,000, 2019: 7,000).
The majority were female and minors
A large proportion of the immigrants, 60 percent, were female – and many minors also came to Germany (34 percent). According to preliminary results from Destatis, around 40 percent of those who immigrated by mid-2023 were single parents and their children.
The high level of immigration from Ukraine led to the population with Ukrainian citizenship in Germany growing from 138,000 people in January 2022 to 1.15 million people in October 2023. According to Destatis, the share of Ukrainians in the total population rose from 0.2 percent to 1.4 percent in the same period.
Number of Ukrainians increased sevenfold
From January 2022 to October 2022, the number of Ukrainian citizens in Germany increased from 138,000 to 1.02 million people, an increase of more than seven times or 639 percent. In comparison, the increase from January to October 2023 from 1.07 million to 1.15 million people (7 percent) was significantly lower. “In October 2023, Ukrainian nationals were the second largest foreign population group in Germany after Turkish nationals (1.6 percent or 1.39 million),” said Destatis.
Share of the Ukrainian population is highest in Hamburg and Berlin
In October 2023, most Ukrainians lived in the most populous federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia (234,000), Bavaria (168,000), and Baden-Württemberg (159,000). Proportionately – measured in relation to the total population in the respective federal state – most lived in Hamburg (1.7 percent) and Berlin (1.6 percent). The fewest Ukrainians, on the other hand, lived in Rhineland-Palatinate, Schleswig-Holstein and Brandenburg (1.2 percent each).