Switzerland is one of the most popular European settlements for Germans

Press Release No. 17, 2022. N 029

• At the beginning of 2021 300,000 Germans lived in the neighboring country
• New peak for naturalization in 2020

Wiesbaden – Of all the European countries, immigrants from Germany are still frequently attracted to Switzerland. At the beginning of 2021, there were about 309,000 German citizens living in the neighboring country, according to the Federal Bureau of Statistics (Testadis). According to data from the EU statistics firm Eurostat, their numbers have been growing for years. Compared to 2020, the increase is 0.7% or about 2,100.

More Germans live in Austria – an increase of 4% compared to 2020

Austria is the second most populous country of about 209,000 Germans by 2021. This is an increase of 4% or more than about 8,700 in Switzerland compared to the previous year. What both countries have in common is that the Germans’ change of residence is facilitated by physical proximity and language barrier.

The third largest group of German citizens, about 140,000 people lived in Spain.

In 2020, 6,900 Germans became Swiss citizens

Switzerland is also the most frequented German-citizen country in Europe: by 2020, the number of Germans with Swiss citizenship had reached a new peak – 6,900 registered, 4.3% more than in 2019. Naturalization: A good 1,400 Germans became Swedish citizens in 2020.

Method Note:

Data released by Eurostat on the number of Germans in other European countries reflects the situation on January 1. One year. In these figures the Germans who are natives of the destination are not counted as Germans. No data available for Cyprus and Malta.
For the United Kingdom, data for the two indicators are only available until 2019, so they are not included in the current comparison. The most recent data from the British Statistics Commission, ONS, was released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics on the Brexit monitor.

Additional information:

Data for this Number of Germans living in EU and EFTA countries As well as Number of Germans who received new European citizenshipAvailable in the Eurostat database.