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On to the Matterhorn!
Photo: ANTHONY ANEX/EPA
Emigrants from Germany are most often drawn to Switzerland in Europe.
As reported by the Federal Statistical Office, around 309,000 German citizens were resident in the neighboring country at the beginning of 2021.
According to data from the EU statistics agency Eurostat, their number has been increasing for years, most recently by 0.7 percent or around 2100 people.
Austria follows in second place among the emigration destinations, where around 209,000 Germans were resident in 2021.
The increase compared to the previous year was four percent or around 8700 people, higher than in Switzerland.
What both countries have in common is that the change of residence for Germans is made easier by the physical proximity and the lack of a language barrier.
The third largest group of German citizens - around 140,000 people - lived in Spain.
Data for Great Britain is only available up to 2019, so it was not included in the comparison.
New high for naturalizations in Switzerland
Switzerland is also the country in Europe whose citizenship Germans acquired most frequently: In 2020, the number of Germans who acquired Swiss citizenship reached a new high: 6,900 naturalizations were recorded - 4.3 percent more than in the previous year .
Sweden ranked second for naturalizations.
A good 1,400 Germans became Swedish citizens in 2020.
The data on the number of Germans in other European countries is correct as of January 1st.
one year.
Germans who are also nationals of the target country are not counted as Germans.
No data are available for Cyprus and Malta.
Around 83,000 Germans live in France, which is fourth in this analysis.
Then come the Netherlands (81,000), Belgium (40,000), Italy (35,000), Sweden (29,000) and Denmark and Norway (26,000 each).
mamk/dpa
