Data extracted 19 February 2025.
Planned article update: February 2026.
Highlights
In 2023, EU countries granted citizenship to over 1.1 million people who had their usual residence on EU territory, an increase of 6.1% compared with 2022.
Most of the new citizenships were granted by Spain (240 200; 22.9% of the EU total), Italy (213 600; 20.3% of the EU total), Germany (199 800; 19.0%), France (97 300; 9.3%) and Sweden (67 800; 6.5%).
In 2023, Syrians, Moroccans and Albanians remained in the top 3 recipients of EU country citizenship.
Acquisitions of citizenship, 2023
This article presents recent statistics on the acquisition of citizenship in the European Union (EU).
Citizenship is the legal bond between an individual and a state, acquired by birth, naturalisation, or other means according to national legislation. Naturalisation is the process by which a state grants its citizenship through a formal act on application of the individual concerned. Other ways of granting citizenship may include spouses of nationals, minors adopted by nationals and descendants of nationals born abroad returning to the country of origin of their ancestors.
Naturalisation rate is the ratio of the number of persons who acquired the citizenship of a country during a calendar year over the total number of non-national residents in the same country at the beginning of the year.
Main trends in the acquisition of citizenship
In 2023, 1 050 100 people obtained citizenship of the EU country of their usual residence, an increase of 6.1% compared with 2022 (Figure 1). This was mainly the result of increases in absolute terms in Spain (58 600 more residents were granted Spanish citizenship than in 2022), followed by Germany (33 200 more) and Belgium (6 700 more) (Table 1). By contrast, the largest decreases in absolute terms compared with 2022 were observed in Sweden (down by 24 400), followed by France (down by 17 200) and Portugal (down by 3 800).
Source: Eurostat (migr_acq)
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Source: Eurostat (migr_acq)
In relative terms, the largest increases occurred in Ireland (34.3%), Estonia (32.7%), Spain (32.2%) and Poland (23.3%), while the largest decreases occurred in Lithuania (-78.1%), Bulgaria (-55.4%) and Denmark (-34.8%) (Figure 2).
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The top 5 countries granting citizenship accounted for 78% of the total of new citizenships granted in the EU in 2023: Spain (240 200, or 22.9% of the EU total), Italy (213 600, or 20.3%), Germany (199 800, or 19.0%), France (97 300, or 9.3%) and Sweden (67 800, or 6.5%) (Figure 3).
Acquisition of citizenship in relation to the total population and naturalisation rate
In relation to the total population on 1 January 2023, the highest number of citizenships were granted by Luxembourg (8.8 per thousand persons), followed by Sweden (6.4), Spain (5.0), Belgium (4.7) and Italy (3.6) ( Figure 4).
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Source: Eurostat (migr_acq) and (migr_pop1ctz)
An indicator commonly used to measure the effect of national policies on citizenship is the "naturalisation rate" or ratio of the total number of citizenships granted over the stock of non-national population in a country at the beginning of the year. It is important to note that changes in naturalisation rates can also be attributed to changes in the non-national population and in the way the non-national population is measured (see Data sources).
In 2023, in the EU as a whole, 2.6 usual residents per hundred resident non-national citizens were granted citizenship. The country with the highest naturalisation rate was Sweden (7.9), followed by the Romania (5.9) and Italy (4.1), while Latvia (0.4) and Lithuania (0.1) had the lowest rates (Figure 5).
Source: Eurostat (migr_acqs)
Acquisition of citizenship by group of previous citizenship
The majority (87.6%) of people granted an EU citizenship in 2023 were previously citizens of a non-EU country. Citizens of another EU country than the country of residence accounted for 10.7%. People without (or with unknown) citizenship represented 1.7% of the total (Table 2).
In Hungary and Luxembourg, the majority of new citizenships (64.4% and 60.6% respectively) concerned citizens of another EU country (Table 2). In Luxembourg, Portuguese citizens accounted for the largest share (34.7%), followed by French (21.7%), Belgian (9.6%) and Italian citizens (8.8%). In Hungary, most new citizenships were for Romanians (72.0%) followed by Slovaks (19.9%) (Table 4).
Source: Eurostat (migr_acq)
For the EU as a whole, the largest groups in terms of previous citizenship in 2023 were Syrians (107 500 persons, 10.2% of all acquisitions of citizenship), Moroccans (106 500, 10.1%), Albanians (44 400, 4.2%), Romanians (37 200, 3.5%) and Venezuelans (32 100, 3.1%) (Table 3). Apart from Romania, 2 other EU countries were part of the top 10: Poland (13 900 persons, or 1.3%), and Italy (10 200 persons, or 1.0%).
Source: Eurostat (migr_acq)
The main EU countries granting citizenship to each of the top 5 nationalities were, respectively (Table 3):
- Syrians: Germany (70.2%), the Netherlands (10.6%), and Sweden(10.4%)
- Moroccans: Spain (50.7%), Italy (26.2%), and France (12.5%)
- Albanians: Italy (71.5%) and Greece (22.4%)
- Romanians: Italy (38.7%), Germany (20.4%) and Spain (13.2%)
- Venezuelans: Spain (93.8%)
Acquisition of citizenship by age and sex
The distribution by sex shows a slight predominance of women (50.8%, compared with 49.2% men), especially for the age groups above 30 years (56.9% women in the age group 60-64 years) (Table 5).
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Source: Eurostat (migr_acq)
In 2023, acquisitions of citizenship by women outnumbered acquisitions by men in all but 7 EU countries (Germany, Lithuania, Romania, Sweden, Hungary, Ireland and Malta). The highest proportion of citizenship acquisitions by women was recorded in Croatia (62.2%), while the country with the highest share of acquisitions by men was Germany (54.7%) (Table 5).
In 2023, the median age of persons acquiring citizenship in the whole of the EU was 31 years. The EU country with the lowest median age was Greece: half of its new citizens were younger than 21 years. The highest median age was in Croatia (40.4 years).
Age distribution varied from 1 EU country to another due to differences in citizenship legislation and age structure of the non-national population (see Data sources). However, the common feature uniting all was that most new citizenships were acquired by younger people, and that the numbers declined with age.
In 2023, 38.0% of persons granted citizenship of an EU country were younger than 25 years; another 42.8% were aged 25-44 years, while those aged 45 years and over accounted for 19.3%.
Children below the age of 15 years represented 24.5% of persons granted citizenship of an EU country; the highest proportions of children were observed in France (35%), Greece (30.8%), Denmark (29.7%) and Belgium (29.3%). The countries with the lowest proportion of citizenship acquisitions by children were Lithuania (2.8%), Croatia (8.1%), Luxembourg (8.6%) and Bulgaria (9.0%).
Across all EU countries, 7.2% of those who were granted citizenship were at least 55 years of age. Hungary (21.4%), Bulgaria (18.3%) and Latvia (17.9%) had the highest shares of citizenships granted to persons aged 55 years and over. The countries with the lowest shares of citizenships granted to persons aged 55 years and over were Slovenia (2.5%) and Austria (3.0%).
Source data for tables and graphs
Data sources
Eurostat produces statistics on a range of issues related to acquisitions of citizenship, international migration flows and migrant population stocks. Data are collected on an annual basis and are supplied to Eurostat by the national statistical authorities of the EU Member States. Data for Germany (migr_acq and migr_acq1ctz) are rounded to the nearest multiple of 5 starting from reference year 2018. The break in time series for Romania in 2017 relates to the introduction of improved administrative data sources that give more complete breakdowns for country of previous citizenship.
Data in this article are rounded to the nearest hundred.
Definitions
This article concerns the acquisition of citizenship by the usually resident population of Member States. Usual residence means the place where a person normally spends the daily period of rest, regardless of temporary absences for purposes of recreation, holidays, visits to friends and relatives, business, medical treatment or religious pilgrimage.
Citizenship is the legal bond between an individual and a state, acquired by birth, naturalisation, or other means according to national legislation. Naturalisation is the process by which a state grants its citizenship through a formal act on application of the individual concerned. Other ways of granting citizenship may include spouses of nationals, minors adopted by nationals and descendants of nationals born abroad returning to the country of origin of their ancestors.
The naturalisation rate is the ratio of the number of persons who acquired the citizenship of a country during a calendar year over the stock of non-national residents in the same country at the beginning of the year. The naturalisation rate should be used with caution, however, as the numerator includes all means of acquisition and not just naturalisation of eligible residing non-nationals and the denominator includes all non-nationals and not just the relevant population, i.e. those non-nationals who are eligible for naturalisation.
There are 2 ways of recording age:
Age reached: number of complete years lived at the end of the calendar year in question. Under this age concept, a person born in 1951 will be 52 on each day of the calendar year 2003, irrespective of his or her birthday.
Age completed: number of completed years lived at most recent birthday.
Detailed information on the different modes of acquisition of citizenship in force in different countries can be found at the GLOBALCIT website.
The category recognised non-citizen is particularly relevant in the Baltic States.
Context
Within the European Commission, the Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs is responsible for European migration policy.
In September 2020, the European Commission presented the New Pact on Migration and Asylum which was adopted by the European Parliament in April 2024 and by the Council in May 2024. This pact provides a comprehensive approach that delivers a common European response to migration. It allows the EU to manage migration in a fair and sustainable way, ensuring solidarity between countries while also providing certainty and clarity for people arriving in the EU and protecting their fundamental rights. The Pact on Migration and Asylum will ensure that countries share the effort responsibly, showing solidarity with the ones that protect our external borders and with those facing particular migratory pressure, while preventing irregular migration to the EU. The Pact also gives the EU and its countries the tools to react rapidly in situations of crisis, when countries are faced with large numbers of arrivals or when a third-country or non-State entity tries to instrumentalise migrants in order to destabilise our Union.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine
On 4 March 2022, the Council unanimously adopted an implementing decision introducing temporary protection due to the mass inflow of persons fleeing Ukraine as a consequence of Russia's invasion.
The activated Temporary Protection Directive provides special procedures to deal with mass inflows of displaced persons for the first time. Temporary protection is an exceptional measure to provide immediate and temporary protection to displaced persons from non-EU countries and those unable to return to their country of origin. It applies when there is a risk that the standard asylum system is struggling to cope with demand stemming from a mass inflow, risking a negative impact on the processing of claims.
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Methodology
- Methodology: international migration, citizenship
- Acquisition and loss of citizenship (ESMS metadata file — migr_acqn_esms)
- Population (ESMS metadata file — demo_pop_esms)
- International migration statistics (ESMS metadata file — migr_immi_esms)