According to the Federal Statistical Office, 22.3 million people with foreign roots live in Germany – that’s two percent more than a year ago.
A good one in four in Germany has a migration background. This is the result of an evaluation by the Federal Statistical Office based on the 2021 microcensus, which was published in Wiesbaden on Tuesday. According to this, 22.3 million people with foreign roots lived in Germany last year. This corresponds to 27.2 percent of the total population and is the highest value since measurements began in 2005, according to a spokeswoman.
Compared to the previous year with 21.9 million people with a migration background, this corresponds to an increase of two percent. In 2020 their share of the population was 26.7 percent, in 2019 it was 26 percent. According to the definition used here, a migration background exists if you were not born with German citizenship or if this is the case for at least one parent.
According to the statistics, Turkey is the main country of origin of people with foreign roots in Germany, at twelve percent, followed by Poland (ten percent) and the Russian Federation (six percent). One percent or 308,000 of the people with a migration background living in Germany last year came from Ukraine. The vast majority (82 percent) have immigrated themselves and have lived in Germany for an average of 19 years, the Federal Office said.