Turks in Germany - Demographics

Demographics

Estimates of the Turkish population in Germany range between 2.5–2.7 million, 2.7 million, 3.5 million and 4 million people having at least one parent immigrated from Turkey. Turks account for 63% of the total Muslim population in Germany, by far the largest single group.

In 2008, there were 1,688,370 Turkish citizens (889,003 males and 799,367 females) in Germany which accounted for 25.1% of Germany's foreign population and thus the largest ethnic minority. The official number of Turks with Turkish citizenship in Germany is falling, partly because about 30-70,000 are taking on German citizenship per year (with a downward trend, however), and since the year 2000, children born in Germany are entitled to adopt German citizenship if at least one parent has lived for eight years in Germany and has a perpetual residence permit.

In 2005, there were 840,000 German citizens of Turkish origin. Overall, the number of German residents with origins in Turkey was approximately 2,812,000 or approximately 3.4% of Germany's population. In 2010, the Embassy of Germany said that there are 3.5 million people of Turkish origin living in Germany and that a further 3 million Turks have spent part of their lives in Germany. Other estimates suggest that there are now over 4 million people of Turkish descent living in Germany.