According to the latest data from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), in 2025 Germany's net migration amounted to only 235,000 people. That is a decline of around 45% compared with 2024, when the positive migration balance reached 430,000. This significant shift in the dynamics of population movements marks an important turning point in Germany's recent demographic history.
In 2025, around 1.48 million people arrived in Germany, while 1.25 million left the country. This represents a 13% drop in the number of immigrants relative to the previous year, accompanied by a slight decrease in emigration of around 2%. These figures, based on records held by registration offices, reflect both changes in global migration flows and the effects of Germany's domestic policy and the geopolitical situation in Europe and the Middle East.
Net immigration from Syria fell by 67% – from 75,000 to just 25,000 people. Similar trends were recorded for Turkey, a decline of 41%, from 41,000 to 24,000, and for Afghanistan, also -41%, from 33,000 to 19,000. Destatis links these changes directly to the lower number of asylum applications, which is confirmed by the statistics of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF).
Migration from Ukraine has also slowed. In 2025, the migration balance with that country amounted to 96,000 people, compared with 121,000 a year earlier, a decline of 21%.
Germany, surprisingly, recorded a negative migration balance with the other countries of the European Union, which came to -54,000 people, compared with -34,000 in 2024. The largest deficits concerned Poland (-17,000) and Bulgaria (-14,000). Declines were also recorded in relations with Spain, Croatia, Greece and Italy. Only with Italy did Germany record a positive balance (+4,000), while small increases concerned the Netherlands and Romania.
This trend testifies to the growing outflow of skilled workers from Central and Eastern Europe. At the same time, it points to intensifying competition for talent on the common European labour market. From a continental perspective, the largest contribution to the positive migration balance came from people from Asia (+158,000), Europe (+85,000) and Africa (+54,000).
Since 2005, Germany has recorded a steady net emigration of its own citizens. In 2025, the loss amounted to 97,000 people (compared with 81,000 in 2024). The most popular destinations remain Switzerland, 23,000, Austria, 14,000, and Spain, 10,000. High earnings, a better quality of life, lower taxes and an attractive climate are the main motives behind the departures of skilled Germans – engineers, doctors, IT specialists and managers.
This “brain drain,” combined with low natural population growth, deepens the demographic challenges. An ageing society requires an ever greater influx of labour from abroad, while the growing emigration of homegrown specialists weakens the economy's capacity for innovation.
The fall in net immigration to a level of 235,000 is not an isolated phenomenon. It corresponds both to the tightening of asylum policy in Germany and Europe and to the stabilisation of the situation in Ukraine and the easing of migration tensions from the Middle East. At the same time, demographic pressure persists. According to UN and Eurostat forecasts, by 2040 Germany will need at least 300,000–400,000 net immigrants annually in order to maintain its current level of labour supply.
Economists point out that further restricting migration may lead to a slowdown in GDP growth and to problems in sectors such as healthcare, construction, logistics and IT. On the other hand, the uncontrolled migration of previous years generated significant social costs and integration challenges, which translated into political change – a rise in support for parties sceptical of mass immigration.
