Retour About 5% of people living in the EU are non-EU citizens

25 mars 2021

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On 1 January 2020, 23 million citizens of a non-member country lived in one of the EU Member States, representing 5.1% of the EU population.

In addition, there were 13.5 million people living in one of the EU Member States with the citizenship of another EU Member State, representing 3.0% of the EU population.

Highest shares of non-nationals in Luxembourg, lowest in Poland and Romania

In relative terms, the EU Member State with the highest share of non-national citizens was Luxembourg (47% of its total population).

A high proportion of foreign citizens (10% or more of the resident population) was also observed in Malta, Cyprus, Austria, Estonia, Latvia, Ireland, Germany, Belgium and Spain.

In contrast, non-nationals represented less than 1% of the population in Poland and Romania.

In most EU Member States, the majority of non-nationals were citizens of non-EU countries. Only in Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, Austria and Slovakia the non-nationals were mainly citizens of another EU Member State.

Share of non-nationals in the resident population, EU and EFTA countries, percentages per country, 2020 data​​​​​​​

Source data: migr_pop1ctz

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