Switzerland remains the most popular European immigration destination for Germans

Press Release No. N049 dated September 6, 2023

• Nearly 311,300 Germans live in the neighboring country at the beginning of 2022
• A new increase in the rate of naturalization of Germans in Switzerland in 2021

WIESBADEN – Of all European countries, immigrants from Germany are still most often drawn to Switzerland. According to reports from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), approximately 311,300 German citizens resided in the neighboring country at the beginning of 2022. Their numbers have been increasing for years. Compared to 2021, the increase was less than 1%, or about 1,800 people.

Austria ranks second among the most popular immigration destinations for Germans in Europe

Neighboring country Austria is the second most popular immigration destination for Germans in Europe. At the beginning of 2022, 216,700 German citizens lived there. However, the increase compared to the previous year was higher than in Switzerland by 4% or approximately 8,000 people. The common denominator between the two countries is that changing one’s place of residence is easier for Germans due to geographical proximity and the absence of language barriers.

The third largest group of German citizens lived in Spain at the beginning of 2022. 142,600 Germans lived there. At the beginning of 2021, there were still 139,600 people. This corresponds to an increase of 2%.

For the UK, data are only available up to 2019 and are therefore not included in the current comparison.

7,940 Germans obtained Swiss citizenship in 2021

Switzerland is also the European country where Germans have acquired citizenship most recently: in 2021, the number of Germans obtaining Swiss citizenship reached a new high. A total of 7,940 naturalization cases were recorded. This was 14% more than the previous year. Sweden came in second place in terms of naturalizations: nearly 1,350 Germans became Swedish citizens in 2021, 5% fewer than the previous year. The number of Germans naturalizing in France has also risen: while 330 Germans obtained French citizenship in 2020, there were nearly 430 in 2021.

Methodological notes:

Data come from the EU statistics body Eurostat, and data for Switzerland from the national Federal Statistical Office (BFS).

Data published by Eurostat on the number of Germans in other European countries reflect the situation as of January 1, 2022, and the situation in Switzerland as of December 31, 2021.

For the UK, data are only available up to 2019 and are therefore not included in the current comparison. In 2019, around 142,400 Germans were registered in the UK.

Germans who also hold the citizenship of the destination country are not counted as Germans in these statistics.