More than a million Ukrainians fled to Germany last year

Around 1.1 million people fled Ukraine for Germany during the course of 2022, according to official statistics published on Thursday.

The net rise in the number of Ukrainians in Germany came to 962,000 for the year after some of the refugees returned home.

"This means that net immigration from Ukraine to Germany last year was greater than that from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq over the years 2014 to 2016 taken together," the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reported.

Most of the refugees arrived in the three months immediately following the February 24 invasion by Russia. The number returning to Ukraine from Germany began to rise from May, rising to 139,000 for the year as a whole.

The number of Ukrainian nationals living in Germany had gone up more than seven-fold, Destatis said. Ukrainians make up around 1.2% of the total German population, according to the most recent figures.

"Ukrainian nationals were thus the second-largest foreign population group in Germany after Turkish nationals," Destatis said.

Given restrictions on men leaving Ukraine, 63% of the refugees were female, and they were comparatively young, reflecting a large number of minors.

While just 13% were older than 60 in October last year, around a third were younger than 18. Among those older than 18, there were twice as many women as men.

In October, Germany's most populous state, North Rhine Westphalia, was home to 210,000, the largest state by area, Bavaria, had taken in 152,000, Baden-Württemberg 135,000 and Lower Saxony 105,000.

The city-states of Berlin and Hamburg took in the largest share of 1.5% each compared with the overall population.