Press release No. 080 of 2 March 2023

• Number of immigrants in Germany exceeding EU average (10.6%)
• Another 5.7% descendants of people whose parents both immigrated to Germany
• Federal Statistical Office with new data offer on immigrants and their descendants from the microcensus, supplementing migrant background information

WIESBADEN – 14.2 million people lived in Germany in 2021 who themselves had immigrated since 1950, according to microcensus results. Immigrants thus accounted for 17.3% of the population. This is reported by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) as it publishes results, for the first time, on the concept of immigrants (first generation) and their direct descendants (second generation). Another 4.7 million people (5.7%) were direct descendants of immigrants. These people were born in Germany but both their parents had immigrated to Germany since 1950.

The concept of immigrants and their direct descendants was recommended by the Federal Government’s Expert Commission on the Framework Conditions for Integration in 2021. According to that definition, people who immigrated themselves or whose parents both immigrated to Germany (today`s territory) in the period from 1950 have a migration history. Just under 19.0 million people in Germany had an immigration history in 2021. They accounted for 23.0% of the population.

Only one parent of another 3.7 million people (4.5%) born in Germany had immigrated to Germany since 1950. In line with the Expert Commission’s recommendation, these are not included in the population with a migration history. 59.7 million people (72.5%) neither had immigrated themselves nor had a parent immigrated to Germany since 1950.

Number of immigrants in Germany exceeding EU average

One of the benefits of the new concept is the international comparability of results for the group of immigrants. With immigrants accounting for 17.3% of the population in Germany, their percentage was higher than the average of all 27 Member States (10.6%), according to results of Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Union. The proportion of immigrants was highest in Malta (22.3%), Cyprus (22.1%) and Sweden (21.9%). The countries with the lowest percentages were Bulgaria, Romania and Poland (less than 1% each). As the results refer to 2021, they do not yet reflect the consequences of the population development due to the Russian attack on Ukraine.

New concept of people with immigration history as recommended by Expert Commission on Integration

In their final report presented in 2021, the Federal Government’s Expert Commission on the Framework Conditions for Integration recommended using the concept of immigrants and their direct descendants in future. They argue that the new concept is clearer in analytical terms than the migrant background concept. It is based on the criterion of migration experience only and does not mix it with citizenship. In addition, the new concept is less complex and enables better comparability at international level. Apart from that, the Expert Commission feels that the new term may help to prevent stigmatisation of the respective groups of persons.

The Federal Statistical Office will continue for some time to publish also results according to the present migrant background concept in order to make the differences between the two concepts clear and ensure the continuity of the time series.

Methodological notes:

The microcensus is a sample survey covering roughly 1% of the population in Germany each year. All data are based on the information provided by the respondents. To obtain information on the total population from the data collected, the data are grossed up using benchmarks from population updates.

The microcensus currently is the only official data source available on the population by migration history. People have a migration history if they themselves or both their parents have immigrated to Germany since 1950. More definitions of the terms used here are contained in a glossary on the website of the Federal Statistical Office.

The results refer to the population in households at their main place of residence (2021: 82.3 million people) but not the population in collective living quarters as the variables required for processing in accordance with the Microcensus Act of 2016 are not collected for people in collective living quarters.

Information on the microcensus as conducted from reference year 2020:

In 2020, the microcensus was redesigned in methodological terms. In order to reduce the timespan between the end of the survey year and the provision of results, as of 2020 initial results are published first and final results are released some time later. The figures published in this press release are final results relating to reference year 2021.

There is a special webpage with detailed information explaining the modifications and the effects of the redesign and the Covid-19 crisis on the microcensus.

More information 

Further information on how the concept of immigrants and their direct descendants is implemented have been compiled in a background paper (only in german). More results concerning the new concept are found in the statistical report entitled “Bevölkerung mit Einwanderungsgeschichte“ (only in german) and under the heading “migration and integration“. Results compiled according to the migrant background concept are contained in our Fachserie „Bevölkerung mit Migrationshintergrund“ (only in german) and in the GENESIS-Online database (tables 12211-0200 to 12211-0206).