BERLIN, June 3 (Reuters) - Germany granted citizenship to a record 332,500 people last year, up 14 percent, data from the Federal Statistics Office showed on Wednesday, with Syrians making up the largest group for the fifth year in a row.

One in five people who obtained citizenship in 2025 were Syrian, but compared to 2024, the number of Syrians who obtained German citizenship decreased by 21 percent.

A large number of Syrians who arrived in Germany for asylum in 2015 and 2016 became eligible for citizenship in 2024.

The office attributed this increase to reforms implemented in June 2024 that reduced the residency requirements for obtaining citizenship from eight to five years, and allowed individuals to hold dual citizenship.

The largest group after the Syrians were the Turks, numbering 34,100, or 10 percent, followed by the Russians, numbering 19,700, or six percent.

There was remarkably strong year-on-year growth for Bosnians, whose numbers increased by 126 percent to 8,800 people, Americans, whose numbers rose by 100 percent to 6,600 people, and Albanians, whose numbers climbed by 97 percent to 6,100 people.

The number of people who have gained citizenship through citizenship restoration laws, which restore citizenship to individuals and their descendants who were stripped of it by Nazi Germany, rose 61 percent to 12,000.