Emigration from Germany to the United States has fallen by 17.8% in the first nine months of 2025, compared to the corresponding period a year earlier, new data from the federal statistics office (Destatis) has found.
According to the data, some 17,100 departures to the US were recorded by German registration authorities between January and September 2025, compared to around 20,800 a year earlier.
This is the lowest level of departures since 2021, a year marked by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the number of departures has declined in each month of 2025, compared to the corresponding month the previous year.
At the same time, immigration from the United States to Germany increased in the period, with just over 19,300 people moving to Germany from the US over the first nine months of the year, which is 3.4% higher than in the corresponding period a year earlier (18,700).
This is again the first time since 2021 that more people have moved from the US to Germany than in the opposite direction.
Tourism data
Tourism numbers have also shifted, Destatis noted, with German hotels and accommodation establishments recording 1.96 million overnight stays by guests from the US between January and August 2025, which is a decline of 3.2% on the previous year (2.02 million).
The decline in US visitors was most pronounced during the summer months – in July, some 345,000 US guests arrived, 10.2% fewer than in the same month the previous year. In June, meanwhile, 346,000 arrivals were recorded, 9.1% lower than in the previous year.
Air travel
Air travel between Germany and the US has also declined slightly, with the number of passengers on flights from German airports to the US falling by 1.3% between January and September. This equates to around 67,200 fewer passengers. In the same period, passenger traffic from Germany to other non-European destinations increased by 4.3%.
Nonetheless, with ‘approximately five million passengers between January and September 2025, the USA remained the most popular non-European destination from German airports, ahead of Egypt with 1.6 million passengers’, Destatis noted. Read more here.
