Around one in four people in Germany has migrant background

Around 21.2 million people in Germany had a migrant background in 2019, an increase of 2.1 percent from a year ago, and they accounted for 26 percent of the country’s population, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced on Tuesday.

Destatis described a person as having a migrant background if he or she or at least one parent did not acquire German citizenship by birth.

A wider time comparison showed that this was also “the lowest increase since 2011.”

Since 2011, the population in Germany had “continuously increased,” Destatis said in mid-June.

However, the annual increase had slowed down since a record growth in 2015 when immigration to Germany hit a peak. In the long term, Destatis still expects Germany’s population to shrink to around 78 million by 2060.

Around 52 percent of the people with a migrant background were German citizens in 2019 and almost 48 percent did not have a German passport, according to Destatis. This was the same share as in the previous year.

Almost two-thirds of all people with a migrant background were immigrants and their descendants from other European countries, according to Destatis.