Net immigration of people from Ukraine to Germany in 2023 amounted to 121 thousand people, which is almost eight times less compared to the 2022 figure of 960 thousand, but still more than an order of magnitude higher than the pre-war figures: in 2019-2021, net immigration amounted to 5-7 thousand people per year, Germany’s Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said on Thursday.
Based on a special assessment of the preliminary results of migration statistics, it specified that in 2023, about 277 thousand immigrants from Ukraine and 156 thousand departures to Ukraine were recorded, while in 2022, about 1.1 million people arrived from Ukraine and 138 thousand returned.
Last year, the lowest net immigration was recorded in April-May – 3-3.5 thousand monthly due to the increase in departures to 15.7-16.1 thousand, the highest – in January-February, 18-18.9 thousand.
In September and October 2023, net immigration after the spring-summer downturn rose to 10.7 thousand and 14.1 thousand, respectively, due to a decrease in the number of those returning to Ukraine, but in November and December it fell to 10.6 thousand and 7.3 thousand, respectively, due to a decrease in arrivals to 20.9 thousand and 17.3 thousand, respectively.
Destatis noted that the age and gender distribution of immigrants from Ukraine in 2023 changed compared to 2022: the share of women and girls among entrants decreased to 53% from 63% a year earlier, immigrants under 18 years of age decreased to 28% from 35%, while the share of immigrants between 18 and 60 years of age increased to 61% from 54%. The share of immigrants from Ukraine aged 60 and over was 11% in both 2022 and 2023.
Thus, according to the statistical office, 61% of immigrants from Ukraine from 2022 are women, 34% are minors. It is specified that, according to the preliminary results of the microcensus, about 40% of those who immigrated by the middle of 2023 were single parents and their children.
“The high level of immigration from Ukraine has led to the fact that the population with Ukrainian citizenship in Germany increased from 138 thousand people in January 2022 to 1.15 million people in October 2023. The share of Ukrainians in the total population increased from 0.2% to 1.4% over the same period,” Destatis pointed out.
According to his data, in October 2023, citizens of Ukraine were the second largest group of foreign population in Germany after citizens of Turkey (1.6%, or 1.39 million people).
It is noted that the highest share of the Ukrainian population – in Hamburg and Berlin: since January 2022, it has increased respectively from 0.21% to 1.67% and from 0.37% to 1.61%.
In October 2023, most Ukrainians lived in the most populous federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia (234 thousand), Bavaria (168 thousand), Baden-Württemberg (159 thousand) and Lower Saxony (114 thousand). However, if we look at the share of Ukrainians in the total population of the respective federal states, a different picture emerges: in addition to Hamburg and Berlin, the largest share of Ukrainians was also in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (1.54%), Saarland (1.52%), Thuringia and Bremen (1.51% each). Rhineland-Palatinate, Schleswig-Holstein and Brandenburg (1.2% each) were the least populous, followed by Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia (1.3% each).
According to Eurostat data, Germany has granted temporary protection status to 1 million 251.25 thousand Ukrainian refugees at the beginning of 2024 and has been leading Europe in this indicator for many months. A year earlier, there were 936.38 thousand of them, and at that time the first place was occupied by Poland, where 956.76 thousand people had such a status.
