Official data shows that the number of refugees living in Germany rose 4.1% to 3.3 million in 2024.
Germany’s Central Register of Foreign Nationals (AZR) resides in the country with 132,000 protected individuals due to international law, humanitarian reasons or political persecution.
Data published by the Federal Bureau of Statistics include data formally classified as refugees and data with limited protection status.
About 1 million Ukrainians live in Germany and have protected status, and there are 713,000 Syrians, 348,000 Afghans, 190,000 Iraqis and 157,000 Turks.
About 277,000 people from Africa have protected status in Germany, about half of which come from East African countries such as Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea – except for 22,000 countries from the Americas.
According to statisticians, the average age of refugees is less than 32 years old and have lived in Germany for about 6.5 years.
Women account for 45% of the total, although 59% of Ukrainian refugees are present.
Children and adolescents under the age of 18 make up 27% of the refugee population.
Although the average age of Ukrainians in Germany is 35 years old, the average age of refugees in Syria and Afghanistan is 28 and 27 years old.
Most refugees (82% or 2.7 million) have valid residence permits, while 427,000 people have public identities, meaning that in their case no legally binding decision has been made.
After seeing their application being denied, about 171,000 people were obliged to leave the country, with 136,000 of them enjoying tolerant status – meaning they cannot be deported because they are sick, inadequate in documentation or for other reasons.
Immigration has been a major theme in German politics for many years.
Friedrich Merz’s new administration has tried to take tougher measures, including denying asylum seekers at the border and limiting the family unity of certain categories of refugees.
