Germany: Country Report | 2024
AI Generated Analysis based on UNHCR Forced Displacement Statisitics.
Executive Summary
To: UNHCR Executive Committee, Donors, Member States, and Press From: The High Commissioner Subject: Key Trends in Forced Displacement: Germany 2024 Executive Summary
A world in turmoil finds a crucial sanctuary in Germany, now home to over 3.1 million forcibly displaced persons. This figure represents a protection landscape profoundly reshaped by a single geopolitical crisis. The full-scale invasion of Ukraine has driven an unprecedented influx, with over 1.2 million refugees from that conflict alone now residing in Germany—a population that vastly outnumbers all others combined. This dramatic shift underscores Germany’s immense contribution as one of the world’s foremost host countries and highlights the immense responsibility shouldered by its communities in response to large-scale emergencies.
This historic influx has placed national protection systems under extraordinary pressure. With new asylum applications at times exceeding 444,000 in a single year, a significant and widening gap has emerged between new claims and decisions. This growing backlog translates directly into prolonged periods of uncertainty for vulnerable individuals and families seeking safety. Furthermore, stark disparities in protection rates based on country of origin—ranging from less than one per cent to nearly 78 per cent—underscore the urgent need for consistent, fair, and efficient asylum processes that uphold international standards.
Amid these challenges, a paradigm shift in solutions emerged, demonstrating a powerful model for the future. The activation of the EU’s Temporary Protection Directive triggered an unprecedented surge in durable solutions, jumping from an average of 800 per year to over 20,000 in 2022. This decisive policy action provided immediate, large-scale protection and stability, proving that political will, coupled with flexible legal pathways, can effectively manage mass displacement. While this was an exceptional response to a specific crisis, it provides a vital lesson in solidarity and effective protection for a world facing record displacement.
Population Overview
Population Overview: Germany
The Federal Republic of Germany continues to be one of the world’s major host countries, providing protection to over 3.1 million refugees, asylum-seekers, and other persons of concern. The data reveals a highly concentrated profile of displacement within the country. Behind these stark numbers, a single population group—primarily refugees and others in need of international protection—accounts for the vast majority, representing approximately 88 per cent of the total.
This composition is overwhelmingly driven by a single major international conflict, with refugees from one country of origin numbering over 1.2 million. This figure significantly surpasses all other refugee populations combined, highlighting the profound impact of specific geopolitical crises on displacement patterns in Europe. This trend continued to intensify over the past year. The overall population of concern recorded a net increase, driven by a substantial rise in the number of refugees, which grew by over 156,000 between 2023 and 2024. This was coupled with a significant 12.3 per cent rise in asylum-seekers from other parts of the world, underscoring the ongoing and dynamic nature of protection needs.
A demographic analysis of the displaced population reveals a profile characteristic of forced displacement due to conflict. The population is heavily concentrated in the primary working-age bracket of 18-59 years, which constitutes nearly 60 per cent of the total. Within this cohort, there is a notable gender imbalance, with a higher proportion of males. The scale, growth, and specific demographic composition of this population underscore both the immense protection needs present in Germany and the significant responsibility shouldered by its host communities.
Demographics
AI Insight: Treemap of the different types of Population of Concern in Germany, where one category comprises the vast majority of the total 3.13 million people., This treemap visualizes the composition of the 3,127,000 individuals considered Population of Concern in Germany as of 2024. The data is broken down into seven categories, with the size of each rectangle representing the number of individuals in that group. The visualization is dominated by a single category, which accounts for 2,749,266 people, or approximately 88% of the total. Two other smaller categories are present, together totaling 377,734 individuals. The remaining four population categories have a value of zero and are therefore not visible in the treemap. The data highlights a highly concentrated profile of populations of concern within Germany, with one group being significantly larger than all others combined.
AI Insight: Population pyramid of refugee and other populations of concern in Germany by age and gender, where the 18-59 age group constitutes the vast majority of the population, with a higher proportion of males than females., This population pyramid displays the age and gender distribution of 20,912,969 refugees, asylum-seekers, and other persons of concern in Germany as of 2024. The data is fully disaggregated by gender.
The horizontal axis represents the percentage of the total population, split by males on one side and females on the other, while the vertical axis shows standard age group categories.
The most striking feature of the pyramid is its expansive mid-section, which indicates that the population is heavily concentrated in the primary working-age bracket (18-59 years). This single group accounts for approximately 59.8% of the total population, with males comprising 33.8% and females 26.0%. This significant bulge is characteristic of populations displaced due to conflict or economic reasons, often involving a higher number of working-age individuals.
In contrast, younger age groups are substantially smaller. Children aged 0-4 and 5-11, as well as adolescents aged 12-17, represent much smaller proportions of the total population. The older population (60+ years) is also proportionally small.
The gender distribution is imbalanced, with a higher number of males than females overall. This disparity is most pronounced in the dominant 18-59 age cohort.
Trends Over Time
AI Insight: Column chart of the number of people by population type in Germany from 2019 to 2024, where refugees and others of concern constitute the vast majority of the population, dwarfing other categories., This column chart presents a breakdown of UNHCR populations of concern in Germany by type, annually from 2019 to 2024. The data is presented in thousands of people. The analysis covers six distinct population types. A key statistical feature is the significant variance in scale between categories; the overall maximum count reaches approximately 2.75 million people, while the median value across all categories and years is only about 13,184. This indicates that a few categories have substantially larger populations than the others. The dominant categories are typically refugees and ‘others of concern’, which consistently number in the hundreds of thousands to millions. In contrast, populations such as ‘Stateless persons’ and ‘Returned refugees’ are numerically much smaller, generally in the tens of thousands. The ‘Returned IDPs’ category consistently registers zero, as expected for a country of asylum like Germany. The chart effectively illustrates Germany’s role as a major host country, with population figures that likely reflect significant global displacement events occurring within the 2019-2024 period.
AI Insight: Bar chart of the change in population groups in Germany from 2023 to 2024, where the refugee population increased by 156,259, while the population of other persons in need of protection decreased by 12,590., This vertical bar chart illustrates the increases and decreases across different population groups in Germany between 2023 and 2024, showing both the absolute number and the percentage change for each group. A zero line separates the groups that experienced growth (bars extending upwards) from those that saw a decline (bars extending downwards).
Three population groups recorded an increase: - Refugees: This group saw the most significant absolute increase, growing by 156,259 people, which represents a 6.4% rise from the previous year. - Asylum-seekers: The number of asylum-seekers increased by 31,525, a substantial percentage growth of 12.3%. - Venezuelans displaced abroad: This group experienced the highest relative growth, increasing by 14.6%, which corresponds to an absolute rise of 1,114 people.
Conversely, two key groups saw a decrease in their populations: - Other persons in need of protection: This category had the largest absolute decrease, with a reduction of 12,590 individuals, or -0.8% of its population. - Stateless persons: The number of stateless persons decreased by 1,228, a change of -0.9%.
Overall, the data indicates a net increase in the total population of concern in Germany during this period, driven predominantly by the significant rise in the number of refugees. This highlights Germany’s continuing role as a major host country for forcibly displaced people.
AI Insight: Horizontal bar chart of the top 9 countries of origin for refugees in Germany in 2024, where the number of refugees from the top country is significantly higher than all others., This horizontal bar chart displays the population of refugees in Germany in 2024, categorized by their top 9 countries of origin, along with ‘Other’ and ‘Unknown’ categories for a total of 10 groups. The data shows a highly right-skewed distribution. The number of refugees from a single origin country ranges from a minimum of 36,583 to a maximum of 1,205,729. The substantial difference between the mean population (274,927) and the median (103,189) highlights the influence of an outlier at the top. This primary country of origin accounts for a refugee population more than four times larger than the country at the 75th percentile (250,625), indicating that a single crisis or situation is the dominant driver of refugee presence in Germany.
Geography & Movements
Geography of Displacement: The German Context
The geography of displacement related to Germany reveals a landscape profoundly reshaped by recent geopolitical events, solidifying its role as one of the world’s major host countries. Behind the stark numbers, the data reveals a story of a sudden and dramatic demographic shift. Prior to 2022, populations forcibly displaced from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq consistently constituted the largest groups seeking protection in Germany. However, the full-scale invasion of Ukraine triggered a rapid and massive influx that has since become the defining feature of the country’s protection landscape.
By mid-2024, this new reality is starkly illustrated by the composition of the refugee population. The number of refugees from Ukraine, at over 1.2 million, now significantly surpasses the combined totals of several other major origin countries. This concentration underscores the immense and immediate protection needs stemming from a single, large-scale conflict, placing extraordinary demands on Germany’s reception and integration systems. In total, Germany hosts approximately 2.75 million refugees from its top ten countries of origin, with a single crisis now being the primary driver of its refugee population.
While Germany is predominantly a major destination, the data also sheds light on the smaller-scale outward movement of forcibly displaced persons. This movement is not diffuse; rather, it is highly concentrated. Analysis of destination countries for those displaced from Germany shows a markedly skewed distribution. One primary country of asylum hosts a significant majority, with a recorded population of 8,680 individuals—a figure that eclipses the combined total of the next nine destinations. This pattern of concentration in a few select locations is a recurring theme, with a median of fewer than 20 individuals per destination country for the broader displaced population originating from Germany. This indicates that even in secondary movements, corridors of displacement are often narrow and specific, reflecting established routes, family ties, or policy-driven pathways.
AI Insight: Choropleth map of destination countries for displaced populations from Germany as of 2024, where a small number of countries host these populations, with a maximum of 658 individuals in the top destination., This choropleth map illustrates the global distribution of displaced populations originating from Germany, as recorded by UNHCR in 2024. The map highlights destination countries, with color intensity corresponding to the number of hosted individuals. The population types include Refugees, Asylum-seekers, Internally displaced persons, Others in need of international protection, Stateless people, and Others of concern.
Based on the statistical profile, data on displaced people from Germany is present for only 14 countries. The number of individuals in these destination countries ranges from a minimum of 5 to a maximum of 658. The distribution is highly skewed, with a median of 16 individuals per country, which is significantly lower than the mean of 83.6. This discrepancy, along with a large standard deviation of 178, indicates that a few destination countries host a disproportionately larger number of people from Germany compared to the others. Specifically, 75% of the recorded destination countries host 60 or fewer individuals.
