Germany naturalised more people in 2024 than during any single year since 2000, according to figures from authorities in 13 German federal states.
A record-breaking 249.901 international residents in Germany were granted citizenship during 2024, the highest number in any year since 2000. The millennium is often used as a reference point for naturalisation trends because Germany significantly reformed its nationality law on January 1, 2000.
The 2024 figures were first reported by Welt am Sonntag, referencing statistics from 13 of Germany’s 16 federal states, excluding Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Schleswig-Holstein.
The 2024 record can be at least partly attributed to German citizenship law reform passed in June last year, which made internationals eligible for citizenship after five years of residence and permitted dual German citizenship for non-EU nationals.
It marks the second consecutive record-breaking year for German naturalisation figures. In 2023, 200.095 people were naturalised, then the highest number since 2000. This record is attributed to a large number of Syrian-born individuals becoming newly eligible for citizenship after eight years of residence in Germany.
Implemented as part of the June 2024 reforms, the “turbo” or fast-track citizenship route permits international residents who can prove their “exceptional integration” to naturalise just three years after moving to Germany.
Last week, Germany’s new CDU/CSU-SPD coalition government unveiled a draft law to scrap “turbo citizenship”, but official 2024 figures revealed the route was barely used since it opened in 2024.
According to Tagesschau, last year just 20 people were “fast track” naturalised in Rhineland-Palatinate, 16 in Baden-Württemberg, four in Lower Saxony, three in Hamburg,“fewer than three” in Thuringia and none in Bremen. Berlin was the only federal state where the number of people who received “fast track” citizenship was in the three digits, at 382.
Figures, which are only available for Baden-Württemberg, suggest that the majority of people who chose to naturalise in 2024 had long been eligible to naturalise. In the southern federal state, citizens naturalised in 2024 had already lived in Germany for an average of 14,1 years.
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