What percentage of Germany’s voting population has a migrant background?

Newly published figures from the Federal Statistical Office have revealed new information about the demographic makeup of Germany’s eligible voters.

12 percent of eligible voters had a migrant background in 2023

According to figures published on International Migrants Day (December 18), just 7,1 million residents with a migrant background could have voted in a German federal election, if one was held in 2023. Last year, 17,1 million people aged 18 or over and living in Germany had a migrant background, making up around 25 percent of the overall population. 

Germany’s Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) considers a resident to have a “migrant background” if that person or one or both of their parents has migrated to Germany since 1950. Many of these people have grown up in Germany their whole lives, but have a temporary or permanent residence status and not the German citizenship which would make them eligible to vote.

These figures reveal that residents with a migrant background made up just 12 percent of eligible voters in Germany in 2023, up from 9 percent in 2013.

Data cannot be used to predict 2025 Bundestagswahl outcome

In 2023, Germany recorded the highest number of naturalisations in 23 years, with the majority of new citizens hailing from Syria, Greece and Romania.

Since the outgoing federal government passed the dual citizenship law in June 2024, making millions more long-term residents eligible for the passport they need to vote, the number of eligible voters with a migrant background is only expected to have risen in 2024, and to continue rising in 2025.

However, Destatis warned that its recent figures revealed little information about how demographic changes in Germany’s voting population may shape the snap election scheduled for February.  “Given that the most recent data relates to 2023, the figures given only provide approximate information with regard to the 2025 federal election,” the organisation wrote in its press release.

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