One in five people living in Germany have an immigrant background, the highest figure on record, new research has found. Meanwhile, the number of people who have no immigrant background has declined in real terms by nearly a million people.

The statistics, released by the German Federal Statistical Office on Monday, count as an immigrant anyone who came to Germany from 1950 onwards and their descendants, as well as foreign residents with an immigrant background, Deutsche Welle has reported.

They show that in 2014, 16.4 million people with an immigrant background are currently residing in Germany, equivalent to 20.3 percent of the population. That figure represents a ten percent increase in the last four years alone, equivalent to a million people, and is up three percent on 2013. 10.9 million of those included in the statistic were first generation immigrants.

By contrast, the population without a migrant background decreased by 885,000 compared with 2011, a decrease of 1.4 percent.

Of the 16.4 million, 56 percent hold a passport, a number that dropped slightly in the immigrant population, to 46.1 percent. Much of the rise is thanks to immigration from within the EU

The figure is the highest since records began in 2005.