Press release No. 105 of 21 March 2016
WIESBADEN – The year 2015 was characterised by unusually high immigration of foreigners to Germany. Based on provisional results of a flash estimation of migration statistics, the Federal Statistical Office reports that the arrival of just under 2 million foreign people was registered by the end of 2015. At the same time, roughly 860,000 foreigners departed from Germany. Consequently, net migration of foreign people amounted to 1.14 million. This is the highest net immigration of foreigners ever recorded in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany
Methodological notes
The net migration of 1.14 million foreigners determined for 2015 within the scope of migration statistics is the result of a flash estimation performed for the first time. It is based on verified figures that had been available before for the months of January to August 2015 and on estimated data on the migration of foreigners (arrivals and departures) for the months of September to December 2015. For this period, the raw data have been counted. The differences between these counts and the verified monthly results have been modelled on the basis of previous months and, using this model, have been transferred to the months of September to December 2015.