A record number of Britons are naturalizing for German citizenship, according to Bundesamt statistics.
In 2017, around 112 200 foreigners were naturalized, highest level since 2013, 1.7% more than the year before.  The United Kingdom ranks first among EU countries in 2017 at around 10.0% .
Only 622 British citizens had acquired German citizenship in 2015, in 2016 they had reached a record high of 2,865 (+ 361% over the previous year) and finally 7,493 in 2017 (+ 162% over the previous year). At the same time, the United Kingdom was the second-largest naturalized nation of all nations.
A connection with the forthcoming Brexit is obvious: In the two years 2016 and 2017, a total of 10,358 Britons acquired German citizenship – more than twice as many as in the entire period from 2000 to 2015 (5 092).
Around 9% of all naturalized British citizens acquired German citizenship from abroad in 2017, so they did not live in Germany.
| Previous citizenship | A total of | Change compared to the previous year |
Rank of naturalization |
|---|---|---|---|
| number | in percent | ||
| Naturalizations in total | 112 211 | + 1.7 | 2.2 |
| Turkey | 14 984 | – 8.0 | 1.1 |
| United Kingdom | 7 493 | + 161.5 | 10.0 |
| Poland | 6 613 | – 0.3 | 2.5 |
| Italy | 4 256 | + 18.3 | 0.9 |
| Romania | 4,238 | + 10,7 | 8.3 |
| Kosovo | 3 909 | – 1.4 | 3.1 |
| Iraq | 3 480 | – 2.1 | 11.5 |
| Greece | 3 424 | – 0.6 | 1.4 |
| Croatia | 2,896 | – 3.0 | 1.4 |
| Ukraine | 2 718 | – 32.9 | 3.4 |
| Iran | 2 689 | + 1.1 | 10.3 |
| Syria | 2 479 | + 9.5 | 13.7 |
| Afghanistan | 2 400 | – 3,3 | 11.0 |
| Morocco | 2 390 | – 2,4 | 6.1 |
| Russian Federation | 2 123 | – 10,6 | 1.6 |
