A total of 965,000 people were registered as asylum seekers in Germany from January to the end of November.
The figure, given by Germany's interior minister Thomas de Maiziere, puts the total number of new arrivals this year above the total of 800,000 he forecast for 2015 in August.
He said he would not give a new full-year forecast.
Mr De Maiziere said the actual number of new arrivals to the end of November is below 965,000 because of people who registered more than once or continued to other countries, but he cannot say how much lower.