The number of pupils at general and vocational schools in Germany has risen for the second year in a row, according to statistics released on Thursday, partly due to the influx of Ukrainians fleeing Russia's war.
Around 11.2 million pupils will attend these schools in the 2023/2024 school year, according to preliminary data, Germany's Federal Statistical Office Destatis said. That is 107,000 pupils more than in the 2022/2023 school year, a rise of 1%.
The increase in the current school year is mainly due to immigration from abroad. The number of children and young people in the 5-to-19 age group was 4% higher overall at the end of 2022 than at the end of 2021, Destatis said.
"The number of foreign children and young people increased by 27% during this period."
Immigrant Ukrainian children in particular are one reason for the increase in the number of pupils, according to the statisticians, though they said they could not yet quantify the exact impact of immigration as the pupils' nationalities cannot be verified until school statistics are published in the autumn.
Some 1.7 million of the approximately 11.2 million pupils in the 2023/2024 school year will have foreign citizenship, Destatis said. This is 7% more than in the 2022/2023 school year, meaning that 15% of all pupils in Germany now have a foreign passport.
The number of pupils at general education schools rose by 1.3% to 8.8 million in the 2023/2024 school year compared to the previous year. At vocational schools, on the other hand, it fell slightly, by 0.1% to 2.3 million.
The proportions vary between Germany's federal states. Destatis says that Hamburg recorded the highest increase in pupils, seeing a rise of 2.2%, followed by Bremen and Brandenburg with 2.2% each. Bringing up the rear is Baden-Württemberg, where there was no change, according to the data.
