Kosovars third place for equipment with German passport

However, most naturalised people continue to come from countries outside the EU, so-called third countries, broadcast albinfo.ch. The Research Institute has published these figures exactly on the day it was 20 years old from the introduction to reformed citizenship law.

The European Union's expansion in 2004 and 2007, as well as the move before Great Britain, has recently increased the number of EU citizens who have received the German passport.

With 6,300 naturalizations, the British formed the largest group in 2018, followed by Poles (6,200) and Romanians (4,300).

Meanwhile, the total number of people naturalized from third countries is dropping annually -- from 181,000 as they were in 2000, it dropped to about 75,000, records albinfo.ch.

Mostly German passports have received people from Turkey (16.700), Iraq (45,000) and Kosovo (3800).

With the citizenship law reformed in 2000, stay time in Germany, needed to apply for the country's passport, albinfo.ch, had been cut to eight years. And citizens of EU countries are also allowed to maintain their citizenship, along with German.