North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) is implementing a revised methodology for recording the nationalities of individuals suspected of criminal activity. Going forward, the annual Police Crime Statistics (PKS) will include and evaluate multiple citizenships held by both suspects and victims and this data will be used to respond to parliamentary and media inquiries.
According to NRW’s Interior Minister Herbert Reul, this change is necessary for a comprehensive understanding of crime data. “If we don’t record all nationalities, we are operating in the dark. Those who want to see reality must also measure it. That’s why we need to consider multiple citizenships in crime statistics” he stated. Reul emphasized the importance of transparency, asserting that accurate data empowers law enforcement to identify potential threats and effectively combat crime.
Under the new system, individuals with German citizenship will no longer be solely categorized as “German” in crime statistics if they also hold another citizenship. Previously, suspects with dual nationality, such as those with both German and Turkish or Greek citizenship, were recorded only as German. This change is expected to alter the results presented in crime statistics. NRW is currently the only German state to adopt this approach.
Individuals who are not German citizens will continue to be recorded as exclusively non-German in the statistics. The statistics for German nationals will remain, now supplemented by information on the proportion of suspects who also hold additional citizenships.
This change deviates from national guidelines, which currently stipulate that individuals with multiple citizenships, including German citizenship, should be recorded solely as “German” in the PKS. A nationwide implementation of multiple citizenship recording is not currently planned.
An internal evaluation of the previous year’s crime statistics, conducted by the NRW Interior Ministry using the new methodology, indicates that nearly one in ten suspects (52,614 individuals) holds a second citizenship. Furthermore, one in six suspects with German citizenship (49,825 individuals) also possess another nationality.
The most common dual nationalities among German suspects in 2024, according to the evaluation, are German/Turkish (10,307), German/Polish (6,652), German/Russian (3,484), German/Moroccan (3,125) and German/Syrian (2,185).
