Roderich Egeler
President of the Federal Statistical Office

Press release April 3, 2009

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2009 election to the European Parliament: Figures on Union citizens entitled to vote in Germany 

WIESBADEN – As reported by the Federal Returning Officer, Union citizens living in Germany may, under specific conditions, cast their vote in the European election on 7 June 2009 by participating in the election of the German members of the European Parliament. Relevant information in 21 official languages of the European Union is available on the website of the Federal Ministry of the Interior and can also be reached through a link on the website of the Federal Returning Officer.

On 31 December 2008, a total of about 2,140,000 citizens of other EU member states lived in Germany who are aged over 18 years and are entitled to vote in the 2009 European election in Germany. That figure has been obtained from the current evaluation of the Central Register of Foreigners by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) referring to the status on 31 December 2008. About 1,122,000 of them are men (52.4%) and about 1,018,000 are women (47.6%). Altogether, 37.6% of the adult foreign population in Germany are EU citizens.

The average age of all EU citizens in Germany, including the under 18 year olds, is 40.8 years, their average duration of stay in Germany is 19.9 years.

At that time, most of the EU citizens entitled to vote in Germany lived in Nordrhein-Westfalen (about 547,000), Baden-Württemberg (401,000) and Bayern (388,000), the smallest number lived in Thüringen (8,000).

 

EU citizens entitled to vote in Germany on 31 December 2008 by Länder
Land	EU citizens, total
Baden-Württemberg	400,799
Bayern	387,595
Berlin	111,185
Brandenburg	14,297
Bremen	19,279
Hamburg	60,807
Hessen	223,588
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern	8,646
Niedersachsen	147,740
Nordrhein-Westfalen	547,223
Rheinland-Pfalz	99,618
Saarland	34,445
Sachsen	23,306
Sachsen-Anhalt	10,137
Schleswig-Holstein	42,596
Thüringen	8,316

 

EU citizens in Germany include about 127,000 young persons entitled to vote, aged from 18 to under 23 years, who in the 2009 European election are entitled to vote for the first time according to German electoral law applying to European elections.

 

EU citizens entitled to vote in Germany on 31 December 2008 by age groups
EU citizens	Of whom aged from … to under … years
	18 to under 23	23 to under 45	45 to under 65	65 and over
Total	126 984	1 089 979	707 008	215 606

 

When examined by citizenship, most EU citizens entitled to vote in Germany come from Italy ( about 460,000 or 21.5%), Poland (361,000 or 16.9%) and Greece (253,000 or 11.8%), followed by Austria (166,000 or 7.8%) and the Netherlands (120,000 or 5.6%). A detailed table on EU citizens living in Germany and entitled to vote here, by citizenship, is available on the website of the Federal Returning Officer.

Any Union citizen entitled to vote may participate in elections either in his/her member state of residence or in his/her member state of origin but may exercise his/her right to vote only once and only personally.

The application forms required and further information on the exact conditions for the right to vote in Germany and on the procedure regarding the entry in the register of voters are available for Union citizens on the website of the Federal Returning Officer under “Service for EU citizens” or as a paper form from the municipal electoral offices.

For further information please contact:
Karina Schorn,
tel: (+49-611) 75-2317,
contact: www.destatis.de/contact

 

EU member states besides Germany:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

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