ALMOST a quarter of Germany's population has a migrant background, the statistical office announced on Thursday. “19 million or 23 percent of Germany's population are either immigrants or both of their parents moved to Germany,” the office stated.

Of these, 14.2 million or 17.3 percent are people who moved to Germany from another country after 1950. 4.7 million of them, or 5.7 percent, are descendants of direct immigrants. For a further 3.7 million residents, one parent is an immigrant, but according to the latest criteria these people are no longer counted as persons with a migrant background.

Ukrainian refugees are not included in the statistics

According to Eurostat data, Germany is among the European Union countries with the highest percentage of immigrants among the population. The record holders are Malta (22.3 percent) and Sweden (21.9 percent), while Bulgaria, Romania, and Poland have the smallest share of immigrants in the total population (below one percent).

Given that the published figures refer to 2021, the statistics do not include refugees from Ukraine, more than one million of whom fled to Germany alone.

Source: Index.hr