Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

F2: Population and migration

2920 Luxembourg LUXEMBOURG

Eurostat collects data series on residence permits which contain statistical information based on Article 6 of the Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 with reference to:

• First residence permits by reason.
  • Residence permits valid at the end of the year by reason.

It should be pointed out that temporary protection status is considered of different administrative nature than the residence permits reported in RESPER data collection. Therefore, persons benefitting from temporary protection are not included in any of the residence permits statistics. These persons are subject of another data collection on Temporary Protection (TP).

In addition to those statistics in absolute terms, residence permits indicators provide yearly information on the share of first residence permits by reason in the total number of first residence permits, the share of valid residence permits at the end of the year by reason in the total number of valid residence permits at the end of the year, and the number of first residence permits issued during the year by thousand persons in each EU and EFTA countries. Those three indicators enable comparisons in relative terms, either geographical or over time, of the structures by reason and share in the population of residence permits in the EU and EFTA countries.

Users of Eurostat asylum statistics are:

• various policy DGs in the European Commission, like DG Migration and Home Affairs for designing, funding and implementing asylum related policies in the EU,
• European Parliament,
• national authorities (Ministries of Interior, Ministries of Justice, immigration agencies) who use Asylum data to monitor or project the development of their national asylum procedures,
• European Migration Network (EMN) which uses the Asylum data as a basis for its annual EU and national level statistical and analytical reports,
• researchers and students conducting analysis and research in the field of asylum,
• journalists and international organisations in the area of asylum and migration.

Three yearly residence permits indicators are available:

1.     First residence permits per 1 000 persons

 R_RP_FRST_POP_t = 1 000 RP_FRST_t / POP_t

With RP_FRST_t being the number of first residence permits delivered during year t and POP_t the residing population on 1 January of year t.

2.     First residence permits by reasons - % of total first residence permits

PC_RP_FRST_{t, r} = 100 RP_FRST_{t, r} / RP_FRST_t

With RP_FRST_{t, r} being the number of first residence permits by reason r (FAM, EDUC, EMP, OTH) during year t and RP_FRST_t the total number of first residence permits delivered during year t. For first residence permits, four types of reason are available:

• Family reasons [FAM]
• Education reasons [EDUC]
• Employment reasons [EMP]
• Other reason [OTH]

3.     Percentage of valid residence permits by reasons in the total number of valid permits

 PC_VRP_{t, r} = 100 VRP_{t, r} / VRP_t

With VRP_{t, r} being the number of valid residence permits at the end of the year t for reason r (FAM, EDUC, EMP, OTH, RFG, SPROT), and VRP_t the total number of valid residence permits at the end of year t. For valid residence permits, six types of reason are available:

• Family reasons [FAM]
• Education reasons [EDUC]
• Employment reasons [EMP]
• Refugee status [RFG]
• Subsidiary protection status [SPROT]
• Other reason [OTH]

The indicators are available for the European Union (EU-27) and for EU and EFTA countries.

Per thousand persons and percentage

Year

The accuracy of the residence permits statistics depends on the accuracy and efficiency of the underlying administrative systems. The widespread redevelopment of administrative systems had a strong positive impact on the accuracy of the collected data.

EU aggregates of the total number of first and valid residence permits are calculated as the sum of data from all Member States. It may be overestimated because of a certain risk that the same third-country national could have been counted in several Member States during the same reference period. 

Data provider: Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat), based on data reported by the countries.

• Population statistics (demo_gind)
• First permits by reason, length of validity and citizenship (migr_resfirst)
• All valid permits by reason, length of validity and citizenship on 31 December of each year (migr_resvalid)

Every year

The three yearly residence permits indicators are à-priori updated on an annual basis or on an ad-hoc basis when significant revisions of source statistics are available.

T+1 year

T+ 7 months

All EU MS

Data are presented for all EU and EFTA countries and for EU-27 aggregate.

> 75% EU MS

EU and EFTA countries are using the agreed RESPER guidelines which leads to a high degree of comparability between country.

France does generally not include minors in their residence permits statistics.

> 10 years

From 2008 onwards for all indicators except for the unaccompanied minors’ indicator only available from 2021 onwards.

> 4 data points

The comparability over time of residence permits statistics on asylum applicants and asylum decisions may be affected by updates in the methodology (see residence permits guidelines in annex):

1. RESPER technical guidelines (2013 version)
2. RESPER technical guidelines (2018 version)
3. RESPER technical guidelines (2023 version)

There is a break in time series in 2018 data reported by Poland for first permits caused by (i) free travel-visas for Ukrainian, Georgian and Moldavian citizens, (ii) the increase of the number of Pole's cardholders granted residence permit and (iii) enter into force of the Seasonal Workers Directive 2014/36/EU. This break in time series refers mainly to the first residence permits issued for "remunerated activities" and for "other" reasons and it has a significant impact on the EU aggregates for these categories. See Annex 9 for more information.

Residence permits indicators are used in regular publications (News articles and statistics explained on non-EU citizens under temporary protection).

Publications - Eurostat (europa.eu)

Residence permits indicators are used in Eurostat interactive publication Migration and asylum in Europe

Residence permits indicators are online on the Eurostat website in the folder residence permits indicators (migr_resind).

Database - Eurostat (europa.eu)

None