In 2023, EU countries granted citizenship to over 1 million people who had their usual residence on EU territory, according to Eurostat
In 2023, 1.050.100 people obtained citizenship of the EU country of their usual residence, an increase of 6.1% compared with 2022. 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)
Eurostat published recent statistics on the acquisition of citizenship in the European Union, highlighting inter alia that:
- The top 5 countries granting citizenship accounted for 78% of the total of new citizenships granted in the EU in 2023: Spain (22.9% of the EU total), Italy (20.3%), Germany (19.0%), France (9.3%) and Sweden (6.5%).
- 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).
- 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.
- For the EU as a whole, the largest groups in terms of previous citizenship in 2023 were Syrians (10.2% of all acquisitions of citizenship), Moroccans (10.1%), Albanians (4.2%), Romanians (3.5%) and Venezuelans (3.1%).
- In 2023, the median age of persons acquiring citizenship in the whole of the EU was 31 years. 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%).
For further details, please read this press release and this more detailed explanation.