Before the US election: Fewer Germans are emigrating to the USA

The USA has lost popularity as an emigration destination. As the Federal Statistical Office reports, almost 9,200 Germans moved to the United States in 2023. With the exception of the Corona years, the number of German emigrants to the United States fell to its lowest level in the past 20 years. In 2003, a good 12,300 Germans had relocated there – a good quarter more than in 2023.

Despite the decline, the United States was still one of the most popular emigration destinations for Germans last year. Only the neighboring countries of Switzerland (21,000) and Austria (12,500) attracted more Germans.

Over half a million Germans live in the USA

According to the United States Census Bureau, a total of around 520,400 Germans lived in the United States in 2023. That was 11 percent less than ten years ago. In contrast, around 125,800 US citizens lived in Germany in 2023. That was 29 percent more than ten years earlier.

According to the Office of Immigration Statistics, a good 4,200 adults from Germany were naturalized in the United States in 2022. The number has been largely constant for years; data for 2023 is not yet available.

Naturalization of Germans in the USA is constant

The number of naturalizations of Americans in Germany increased more than eightfold from 2003 to 2023. Last year, 2,000 Americans acquired German citizenship through naturalization.

“A large part of these were so-called old and reparation cases, in which former German citizens whose German citizenship was revoked for political, racial or religious reasons between 1933 and 1945, as well as their descendants, are naturalized,” explains the Federal Office.

Fewer German-American marriages

The number of marriages between people with German and US citizenship has declined over the past 20 years: while just under 1,740 such couples got married in this country in 2003, in 2023 there were still a good 1,230. This corresponds to a decrease of 29 percent.