Eurostat: 11% of Cypriot residents are citizens of other EU countries

Cyprus is one of the member states of the EU in which the percentage of residents that are citizens of other countries (both from EU member states as well as from non-EU countries) is higher than 10 per cent, coming in third place after Luxembourg and Malta, according to data released by Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical service.

At the same time, Cyprus is one of a few countries where the percentage of residents that are citizens of another EU member state is higher than the percentage of residents from non-EU countries.

According to the data released, on January 1, 2021, 11 per cent of the residents of Cyprus were citizens of other EU member states, while 8 per cent of residents were citizens of non-EU countries.

Overall, in the European Union, 5 per cent of residents were citizens of a non-EU country, which in absolute numbers corresponded to 23.7 million people.

The average of EU citizens living in one of the EU member states with the citizenship of another EU member states was 4 per cent, which corresponds to a total of 13.7 million people.

The largest numbers of non-nationals living in the EU Member States were recorded in Germany (10.6 million people), Spain (5.4 million), France and Italy (both 5.2 million).

Non-nationals in these four Member States collectively represented 70.3 per cent of the total number of non-nationals living in all EU Member States.

In relative terms, the EU Member State with the highest share of non-national citizens was Luxembourg (47 per cent of its total population). Out of these, 38 per cent came from a member state and 9 per cent from a non-EU country.

A high proportion of non-nationals was also observed in Malta (8 per cent EU citizens, 12 per cent non-EU citizens, 20 per cent  total), Cyprus (11 per cent plus 8 per cent, 19 per cent total), Austria (9 per cent plus 8 per cent, 17 per cent total), Estonia (2 per cent plus 14 per cent, 16 per cent total), Latvia (0 per cent plus 13 per cent,13 per cent total), Ireland (7 per cent plus 6 per cent, 13 per cent total), Germany (5 per cent plus 7 per cent, 12 per cent total), Belgium (8 per cent plus 4 per cent, 12 per cent total) and Spain (4 per cent plus 8 per cent, 12 per cent total).

In contrast, non-nationals represented less than 1 per cent of the population in Romania. This percentage was around 1 per cent in Poland, Slovakia and Bulgaria, at 2 per cent in Hungary and at 3 per cent in Croatia and Lithuania.

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

Romanian, Polish, Italian and Portuguese citizens were the four main groups of EU citizens living in other EU Member States on January 1, 2021.