Migration flows: Immigration to the EU-27 from non-member countries was 2.4 million in 2018 A total of 3.9 million people immigrated to one of the EU-27 Member States during 2018, while 2.6 million emigrants were reported to have left an EU-27 Member State. However, these total figures do not represent the migration flows to/from the EU-27 as a whole, since they also include flows between different EU-27 Member States. In 2018, there were an estimated 2.4 million immigrants to the EU-27 from non-EU-27 countries and about 1.1 million people emigrated from EU-27 to a country outside the EU-27 - see Figure 1. In addition, 1.4 million people previously residing in one EU-27 Member State migrated to another Member State.

(million)

Source: Eurostat Figure 1: Immigrants from outside EU-27 and emigrants to outside EU-27, EU-27, 2013–2018(million)Eurostat (migr_imm12prv) and (migr_emi5nxt) Germany: the largest number of immigrants and emigrants Germany reported the largest total number of immigrants (893.9 thousand) in 2018, followed by Spain (643.7 thousand), France (386.9 thousand) and Italy (332.3 thousand). Germany also reported the highest number of emigrants in 2018 (540.4 thousand), followed by Spain (309.5 thousand), France (341.4 thousand), Romania (231.7 thousand) and Poland (189.8 thousand). A total of 22 of the EU-27 Member States reported more immigration than emigration in 2018, but in Bulgaria, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania the number of emigrants outnumbered the number of immigrants.

Source: Eurostat Table 1: Immigration by citizenship, 2018Eurostat (migr_imm1ctz) Relative to the size of the resident population, Malta recorded the highest rates of immigration in 2018 (55 immigrants per 1 000 persons), followed by Luxembourg (41 immigrants per 1 000 persons) — see Figure 2. For emigration, the highest rates in 2018 were reported for Luxembourg (23 emigrants per 1 000 persons), Malta (19 emigrants per 1 000 persons), Cyprus (18 emigrants per 1 000 persons), and Romania (12 emigrants per 1 000 persons).

(per 1 000 inhabitants)

Source: Eurostat Figure 2: Immigrants, 2018(per 1 000 inhabitants)Eurostat (migr_imm1ctz) and (migr_pop1ctz) Highest share of national immigrants for Romania, lowest for Luxembourg In 2018, the relative share of national immigrants (immigrants with the citizenship of the EU-27 Member State to which they were migrating) within the total number of immigrants was highest in Romania (82 % of all immigrants), Slovakia (60 %), Lithuania (57 %), Poland (55 %) and Bulgaria (55 %). These were the only EU-27 Member States where national immigration accounted for more than half of the total number of immigrants — see Figure 3. By contrast, in Luxembourg, national immigration represented no more than 5 % of their total immigration in 2018.

(% of all immigrants)

Source: Eurostat Figure 3: Distribution of immigrants by citizenship, 2018(% of all immigrants)Eurostat (migr_imm2ctz) Information on citizenship has often been used to study immigrants with a foreign background. However, since citizenship can change over the life-time of a person, it is also useful to analyse information by country of birth. The relative share of native-born immigrants within the total number of immigrants was highest in Bulgaria and Lithuania (both 51 % of all immigrants), followed by Romania (43 %) and Estonia (40 %). By contrast, Luxembourg reported relatively low shares of native-born immigrants, less than 5 % of all immigration in 2018.

Source: Eurostat Table 2: Immigration by country of birth, 2018Eurostat (migr_imm3ctb) Previous residence: 2.4 million immigrants entered the EU-27 in 2018 An analysis by previous residence reveals that Luxembourg reported the largest share of immigrants coming from another EU-27 Member State (93 % of its total number of immigrants in 2018), followed by Slovakia (65 %) and Austria (62 %); relatively low shares were reported by Spain (19 % of all immigrants), as well as Italy and Slovenia (both 20 %) — see Table 3.

Source: Eurostat Table 3: Immigration by previous country of residence, 2018Eurostat (migr_imm5prv) Regarding the gender distribution of immigrants to the EU-27 Member States in 2018, there were slightly more men than women (54 % compared with 46 %). The Member State reporting the highest share of male immigrants was Croatia (75 %); by contrast, the highest share of female immigrants was reported in Portugal (53 %).

(% of all immigrants)

Source: Eurostat Figure 4: Immigrants by sex, 2018(% of all immigrants)Eurostat (migr_imm2ctz) Half of immigrants were aged under 29 Immigrants into EU-27 Member States in 2018 were, on average, much younger than the total population already resident in their country of destination. On 1 January 2019, the median age of the total population of the EU-27 stood at 43.7 years, while it was 29.2 years for immigrants to EU-27 in 2018.

(%)

Source: Eurostat Figure 5: Age structure of immigrants by citizenship, EU, 2018(%)Eurostat (migr_imm2ctz)

Migrant population: 21.8 million non-EU-27 citizens living in the EU-27 on 1 January 2019 The number of people residing in an EU Member State with citizenship of a non-member country on 1 January 2019 was 21.8 million, representing 4.9 % of the EU-27 population. In addition, there were 13.3 million persons living in one of the EU-27 Member States on 1 January 2019 with the citizenship of another EU-27 Member State. In absolute terms, the largest numbers of non-nationals living in the EU-27 Member States on 1 January 2019 were found in Germany (10.1 million persons), Italy (5.3 million), France (4.9 million) and Spain (4.8 million). Non-nationals in these four Member States collectively represented 71 % of the total number of non-nationals living in all of the EU-27 Member States, while the same four Member States had a 58 % share of the EU-27’s population.

Source: Eurostat Table 4: Non-national population by group of citizenship, 1 January 2019Eurostat (migr_pop1ctz) Foreign population made of non-EU-27 citizens in most EU-27 Member States On 1 January 2019, Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, Austria and Slovakia were the EU-27 Member States where non-nationals were mainly citizens of another EU-27 Member State. This means that in most EU-27 Member States, the majority of non-nationals were citizens of non-EU-27 countries (see Table 5). In the case of Latvia and Estonia, the proportion of citizens from non-member countries is particularly large due to the high number of recognised non-citizens (mainly former Soviet Union citizens, who are permanently resident in these countries but have not acquired any other citizenship).

(%)

Source: Eurostat Figure 6: Share of non-nationals in the resident population, 1 January 2019(%)Eurostat (migr_pop1ctz) Highest share of foreign population in Luxembourg, lowest in Romania In relative terms, the EU-27 Member State with the highest share of non-nationals was Luxembourg, as non-nationals accounted for 47 % of its total population. A high proportion of foreign citizens (10 % or more of the resident population) was also observed in Cyprus, Malta, Austria, Estonia, Latvia, Ireland, Belgium, Germany and Spain. In contrast, non-nationals represented less than 1 % of the population in Poland (0.8 %) and in Romania (0.6 %). The relative share of foreign-borns within the total population was highest in Luxembourg (47 % of the resident population), followed by Cyprus (21 %) and Malta (20 %). By contrast, Poland reported low shares of foreign-born, 2 % of its total population on 1 January 2019, followed by Bulgaria (2.5 %), Romania (3.2 %) and Slovakia(3.6 %).

Source: Eurostat Table 5: Foreign-born population by country of birth, 1 January 2019Eurostat (migr_pop3ctb) Table 6 presents a summary of the five main groups of foreign citizens and foreign-born populations for the EU-27 Member States, the United Kingdom and EFTA countries (subject to data availability).

(in absolute numbers and as a percentage of the total foreign/foreign-born population)

Source: Eurostat Table 6: Main countries of citizenship and birth of the foreign/foreign-born population, 1 January 2019(in absolute numbers and as a percentage of the total foreign/foreign-born population)Eurostat (migr_pop1ctz) and (migr_pop3ctb) Romanian, Polish, Italian and Portuguese citizens were the four biggest groups of EU-27 citizens living in other EU-27 Member States in 2019 (see Figure 7).

(million)

Source: Eurostat Figure 7: Number of EU-27 citizens that are usual residents in the rest of the EU-27 as of 1 January 2019(million)Eurostat (migr_pop1ctz) Foreign citizens are younger than nationals An analysis of the age structure of the population shows that, for the EU-27 as a whole, the foreign population was younger than the national population. The distribution by age of foreigners shows, compared with nationals, a greater proportion of relatively young working age adults. On 1 January 2019, the median age of the national population in the EU-27 was 45 years, while the median age of non-nationals living in the EU-27 was 36 years.

(%)

Source: Eurostat Figure 8: Age structure of the national and non-national populations, EU-27, 1 January 2019(%)Eurostat (migr_pop2ctz)

Acquisitions of citizenship: EU-27 Member States granted citizenship to 672 thousand persons in 2018 Acquisitions of citizenship were down by 4 % in 2018 The number of people acquiring the citizenship of an EU-27 Member State in 2018 was 672.3 thousand, corresponding to a 4 % decrease with respect to 2017. Germany had the highest number of persons acquiring citizenship in 2018, at 116.8 thousand (or 17 % of the EU-27 total). The next highest levels of acquisition of citizenship were in Italy (112.5 thousand), France (110.0 thousand), Spain (90.8 thousand) and Sweden (63.8 thousand).

(1 000)

Source: Eurostat Figure 9: Number of persons having acquired the citizenship of an EU-27 Member State, EU-27, 2009–2018(1 000)Eurostat (migr_acq) In absolute terms, the highest decreases compared with 2017 were observed in Italy, as 34 100 less residents were granted Italian citizenship, followed by Greece (-6 400), Sweden (-5 100), Denmark (-4 400) and France (-4 300). By contrast, the largest increases in absolute terms were observed in Spain (24 300 more persons were granted Spanish citizenship compared with 2017), followed by Portugal (+3 300) and Luxembourg (+2 000).

Source: Eurostat Table 7: Acquisitions of citizenship by group of previous citizenship, 2018Eurostat (migr_acq) Some 566.1 thousand citizens of non-member countries residing in an EU-27 Member State acquired EU-27 citizenship in 2018, corresponding to a 5 % decrease with respect to 2017. As such, citizens of non-member countries accounted for 84 % of all persons who acquired citizenship of an EU-27 Member State in 2018. These new EU-27 citizens were mainly from Africa (28 % of the total number of citizenships acquired), Europe outside of the EU-27 (25 %), Asia (16 %) as well as North and South America (14 %). Citizens of EU-27 Member States who acquired citizenship of another EU-27 Member State amounted to 89.6 thousand persons, thus accounting for 13 % of the total. In absolute terms, the main groups of EU-27 citizens acquiring citizenship of another EU-27 Member State were Romanians becoming citizens of Italy (6.5 thousand persons) and Germany (4.3 thousand persons), around half of the acquisitions of citizenship by Poles becoming citizens of Germany (6.2 thousand persons), and half of Italians becoming citizens of Germany (4.0 thousand persons). In Luxembourg and Hungary the majority of new citizenships granted were to citizens of another EU-27 Member State. In the case of Luxembourg, Portuguese citizens accounted for the largest share, followed by French, Italian and Belgian citizens, while in the case of Hungary EU-27 nationals acquiring citizenship were almost exclusively Romanians. As in previous years, the largest group of new citizens in the EU-27 Member States in 2018 were citizens of Morocco (67.2 thousand, corresponding to 10 % of all citizenships granted), followed by citizens of Albania (47.4 thousand, or 7.1 %), Turks (28.4 thousand, or 4.2 %), and Brazilians (23.1 thousand, or 3.4 %). Compared with 2017, the number of Moroccan citizens acquiring citizenship of an EU-27 Member State decreased by 2 %. The largest shares of Moroccans acquired their new citizenship in Spain (38 %), Italy (23 %) or France (23 %) while the majority of Albanians received Greek citizenship (51 %) or Italian citizenship (46 %). The majority of Turks (59 %) received German citizenship, and around half of the Brazilians received Italian citizenship (46 %). Highest naturalisation rates in Sweden and Romania One commonly used indicator is the ‘naturalisation rate’, defined here as the ratio between the total number of citizenships granted and the stock of non-national residents at the beginning of the same year. The EU-27 Member State with the highest naturalisation rate in 2018 was Sweden (7.2 acquisitions per 100 non-national residents), followed by Romania and Portugal (with 5.6 and 5.1 acquisitions per 100 non-national residents, respectively).

(acquisition of citizenship per 100 resident foreigners)

Source: Eurostat Figure 10: Naturalisation rate, 2018(acquisition of citizenship per 100 resident foreigners)Eurostat (migr_acq) and (migr_pop1ctz)



Source data for tables and graphs Migration and migrant population statistics: tables and figures