Germany: Record numbers take German passport in 2025
Key takeaways
- A record number of people received a German passport in 2025, a media report says.
- https://p.dw.com/p/5EDo SNew rules introduced in 2024 have made it easier for non-German residents to receive German citizenship Image: Lutz P.
- The statistics come from 14 of Germany's 16 federal states, with data still lacking from the eastern states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Saxony-Anhalt, according to Welt am Sonntag.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
A record number of people received a German passport in 2025, a media report says. Numbers have been rising since Germany lowered citizenship requirements in 2024.
https://p.dw.com/p/5EDo SNew rules introduced in 2024 have made it easier for non-German residents to receive German citizenship Image: Lutz P. Kayser/picture alliance Advertisement At least 309,852 people obtained a German passport in 2025, beating the 291,955 naturalizations the previous year, the weekly Welt am Sonntag has reported.
Germany has seen a rise in the number of people seeking German citizenship since it made it possible in mid-2024 for people to have two different passports and reduced the required time of residence to five from eight years.