Germany registered more than 758,000 asylum seekers from January to October this year, the interior ministry said Thursday, with Syrians accounting for one in every three applicants.

For the month of October alone, 181,000 migrants arrived seeking refuge, surpassing the previous monthly record of around 163,000 arrivals registered in September.

Germany is expecting to receive up to one million asylum seekers this year, and the sudden surge has left local authorities scrambling to cope.

Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis topped October's arrivals while the number of migrants from Balkans states has fallen sharply compared to previous months after Berlin took a firm line against what it deems economic migrants from those countries.

Germany has also begun looking at limiting arrivals from Afghanistan, with Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere saying last week that the rising number of asylum seekers from the war-torn country was "unacceptable".

"There is an increasing number of citizens from the middle class, also from Kabul, and we are in agreement with the Afghan government that young Afghans from middle-class families should stay in their country and rebuild it," he said.

Germany recorded 31,000 Afghan asylum seekers in the month of October.