Cyprus has recorded the third-highest foreign-born share in the European Union, with more than one in four residents born outside the country, according to new figures published by Eurostat.
The data, based on population statistics as of 1 January 2025, shows that 27.6% of people living in Cyprus were born abroad. Only Luxembourg, at 51.5%, and Malta, at 32.0%, reported higher proportions.
EU-wide trends
Across the European Union, nearly 46.7 million of the bloc’s 450.6 million residents were born outside the union, representing 10.4% of the total population. This marks an annual increase of 1.9 million people.
Germany hosted the largest number of foreign-born residents in absolute terms, with 17.2 million, followed by France (9.6 million), Spain (9.5 million) and Italy (6.9 million). High proportional shares were also recorded in Ireland (23.3%), Austria (22.5%), Sweden (20.8%) and Germany (20.5%).
At the lower end of the scale, foreign-born residents accounted for less than 5% of the population in Poland (2.6%), Romania (3.6%), Bulgaria (3.8%) and Slovakia (4.0%).
Non-EU nationals in member states
Around 30.6 million non-EU nationals were living in an EU member state on the same date, equal to 6.8% of the bloc’s population and up by 1.6 million compared with the previous year. A further 14.1 million residents held citizenship of another EU country, a small increase year on year.
Germany again recorded the highest number of foreign nationals at 12.4 million, followed by Spain (6.9 million), France (6.5 million) and Italy (5.4 million). Together, these four countries accounted for 69.7% of all foreign nationals in the EU while representing 57.8% of the total EU population.
By proportion, Luxembourg had the highest share of foreign nationals at 47.0%, followed by Malta (29.4%) and Cyprus (24.8%). The lowest shares were reported in Poland and Slovakia (1.2% each), Romania (1.6%), Bulgaria (2.3%) and Hungary (2.7%).
EU citizens living abroad within the bloc
Luxembourg also recorded the largest proportion of residents who are citizens of another EU country, at 35.8%. Cyprus followed with 10.1%, closely ahead of Austria at 10.0%.
The smallest shares were observed in Poland and Lithuania (0.1% each), Latvia (0.2%), Romania (0.3%), Bulgaria (0.5%), Croatia (0.6%), Slovakia (0.7%) and Hungary (0.9%).
In Estonia and Latvia, the comparatively high presence of non-EU nationals reflects recognised non-citizens, most of whom are former Soviet Union citizens who reside permanently in those countries without having acquired another nationality.
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