According to an announcement from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on Wednesday, the number of professional qualifications earned abroad and recognized in Germany continued to increase in 2025. In 2025, approximately 86,600 recognition applications were positively decided, marking nearly a ten percent increase compared to 2024 (which saw 79,100 positive decisions). However, this growth pace has slowed down significantly, contrasting sharply with the much higher increases seen in the previous two years (21 percent in 2024 and 25 percent in 2023). Of the positively recognized processes in 2025, about 84 percent related to professions regulated by federal law, while the remaining 16 percent were governed by state law.
In total, 102,900 recognition processes for foreign professional qualifications were processed in 2025, including 76,200 new applications submitted during the year. This figure represents a seven percent year-over-year rise, though this growth is much slower than in previous years (the figures for 2024, 2023, and 2022 were 71,000, 62,100, and 49,500, respectively).
Turkey remains the largest source of recognition applications, with 9,800 qualifications-representing eleven percent of all recognitions. Ukraine followed with about 8,300 recognitions, or ten percent. The top five countries also included Syria (6,100), India, and Tunisia, each contributing 5,400 recognitions. Among these five nations, qualifications from Syria showed the strongest growth, surging by 42 percent compared to the previous year.
In contrast, there is a marked decline in the share of positively decided recognition procedures for qualifications from Bosnia and Herzegovina. From 2016 to 2023, West Balkan qualifications were either the most or second most recognized, accounting for six to nine percent of all positively decided applications. Since 2024, however, the total number of applications from Bosnia and Herzegovina has decreased (3,200 in 2025 versus 4,500 in 2024), and the number of positively decided cases has also fallen (2,800 in 2025 versus 4,000 in 2024). For 2025, positively decided procedures from Bosnia and Herzegovina made up only three percent of all approvals.
The most frequently recognized profession in 2025 remained the nurse (including former professions such as health and child nurse and general nurse), with 32,000 recognitions. Consistent with previous years, the doctor (13,900, which can be recognized through the approval process) and the engineer (4,600) were the second and third most common professions, respectively. These three professions together accounted for 58 percent of all recognitions.
