For the second year running, a record number of Britons became German citizens, the German Federal Statistical Office reported on Wednesday.

The consecutive records have been linked to Britain's upcoming departure from the European Union. "A link with the upcoming Brexit is obvious,” Germany's statistics office Destatis said.

About 7,500 Britons were granted German citizenship in 2017 —more than double the record set in the previous year.

The 2017 figure eclipses the 2015 number, when 622 pre-referendum Britons gained German citizenship.

Read more: Berlin and Beyond: now I'm German...

Second biggest country

A total of 112,200 foreigners were granted German citizenship in 2017, the most since 2013 and a 1.7-percent increase on the previous year.

The largest contingent of foreign naturalizations came from Turkey (14,984), followed by Britain (7,500), Poland (6,613), Italy (4,256) and Romania (4,238).

The new citizens from Britain are on average almost 53 years old, significantly older than other naturalized persons (34.8 years).

About 9 percent of 2017's naturalized Britons acquired German citizenship from abroad.

"These are mainly people who were expatriated during the National Socialist era and their descendants," the office explained.

Watch video 04:24 Jews of German descent weigh difficult move

aw/jm (dpa, AFP, Reuters)

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.