It came as a persistent birth deficit outpaced net immigration for the first time in years. Net migration, which includes both arrivals and departures, provided some buffer but proved insufficient. This marks the lowest net migration since 2020, when similar restrictions during the pandemic curbed movement. For the first 10 months of 2025 alone, net migration totalled 220,000, down sharply from 391,500 in the same period of 2024. Since the 2015 migration crisis, Germany’s population has grown by 2.6 million, rising from 80.9 million in 2014.