Overview
- Federal figures show a net decline of about 50,000 in the first half of 2025, from 3.545 million at the end of 2024 to 3.495 million.
- The tally covers people with varied legal statuses and includes those displaced from Ukraine, whose number stood at roughly 1.27 million at the end of July.
- About 492,000 people in the overall total hold insecure status, such as asylum seekers or individuals with tolerated stay.
- Naturalisation contributed to the shift, with 83,150 former Syrian nationals gaining German citizenship in 2024, according to the Interior Ministry.
- Die Linke’s Clara Bünger argues the drop challenges claims of a domestic emergency and cites fortified EU borders, while UN relief chief Tom Fletcher warns humanitarian operations face acute funding pressure after major donor cuts.