North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) is implementing a revised methodology for recording the nationalities of individuals suspected of crimes, moving beyond solely identifying primary nationality. The state will now include multiple citizenships in its annual police crime statistics (PKS) and utilize this data to respond to parliamentary and media inquiries.
Interior Minister Herbert Reul explained the change is intended to provide a more comprehensive and accurate picture of criminal activity. “If we don’t record all nationalities, we are operating in the dark. Those who want to see reality must also measure it” he stated. “This allows us to call things by their name and empower our police to identify dangers early and effectively combat crime.
Previously, individuals with dual or multiple nationalities were categorized solely by their German citizenship within the state’s crime statistics. For example, a suspect holding both German and Turkish citizenship would have been recorded only as German. The new approach will detail all citizenships held.
The system will not alter how individuals with foreign nationalities “only” are recorded. The statistics will continue to reflect those with solely foreign citizenship as such. The existing data on German nationals will remain, but will now be supplemented with details concerning those also holding additional citizenships.
This approach differs from national guidelines, which currently mandate that individuals with multiple citizenships, including German citizenship, be recorded solely as German within the PKS. A nationwide implementation of recording multiple nationalities is not currently planned.
An internal evaluation of last year’s crime statistics using the new methodology reveals that nearly one in ten suspects (52,614) held a second citizenship, while one in six suspects with German citizenship also possessed an additional nationality (49,825).
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).