On 1 January 2008, 30.8 million foreign citizens lived in the EU27 Member States, of which 11.3 million were citizens of another EU27 Member state. The remaining 19.5 million were citizens of countries outside the EU27, of which 6.0 million were citizens of other European countries, 4.7 million of Africa, 3.7 million of Asia and 3.2 million of the American continent. Foreign citizens accounted for 6.2% of the total EU27 population.

This news release, issued on the occasion of the International Migrants Day on 18 December 2009, is based on a report by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, on foreign citizens in the EU27 Member States, Norway and Switzerland. This report presents data either supplied by National Statistical Institutes, or approved by them if estimated by Eurostat.

The proportion of foreign citizens varied between 0.1% in Romania and 43% in Luxembourg

In 2008, the largest numbers of foreign citizens were recorded in Germany (7.3 million persons), Spain (5.3 million), the United Kingdom (4.0 million), France (3.7 million) and Italy (3.4 million). More than 75% of the foreign citizens in the EU27 lived in these Member States.

Among the EU27 Member States, the highest percentage of foreign citizens in the population was found in Luxembourg (43% of the total population), followed by Latvia (18%), Estonia (17%), Cyprus (16%), Ireland (13%), Spain (12%) and Austria (10%). The percentage of foreign citizens was less than 1% in Romania, Poland, Bulgaria and Slovakia.

More than a third of foreign citizens in the EU27 came from another Member State

In 2008, 37% of the foreign citizens living in the EU27 were citizens of another EU27 Member state. The largest groups were from Romania (1.7 million or 15% of the total number of foreign citizens from another EU Member State), Italy (1.3 million or 11%) and Poland (1.2 million or 11%). Among the citizens of countries outside the EU27, the largest groups were from Turkey (2.4 million or 12% of the total number of foreign citizens from countries outside the EU27), Morocco (1.7 million or 9%) and Albania (1.0 million or 5%).

The origin of the population of foreign citizens varied greatly between Member States. In six Member States, the largest single group of foreign citizens accounted for more than 30% of the total foreign population. The Member States with the highest percentage of foreign citizens from one single country were Greece (64% of foreign citizens were from Albania), Slovenia (47% from Bosnia and Herzegovina), Hungary (37% from Romania) and Luxembourg (37% from Portugal). In Latvia, 90% of the population of foreign citizens were recognised non-citizens.