Almost one third of people in Cyprus were born overseas

Around 27 migrants for every 1,000 people arrived in Cyprus from outside the EU in 2021, data released by Eurostat on Wednesday showed, also revealing 22.7 per cent of the island’s citizens were born overseas.

This means both those born in third countries and elsewhere in the EU, putting Cyprus in third place among the EU27.

Although Cyprus is the country with the second highest percentage of citizens born in another member state (10.6 per cent), it is well below in the ranking, in fifth place, in terms of citizens born in a third country (12.2 per cent).

In 2021, around 2.3 million migrants from third countries arrived in the European Union from outside the EU and around 1.1 million people migrated from the EU to a non-EU country in 2021, a significant increase on the previous year.

Cyprus, in 2021 had the third highest proportion of migrant arrivals per 1,000 people. The EU averaged around five migrants per 1,000 people, while the highest proportion was recorded in Luxembourg (almost 40 per 1,000) and Malta (35).

As regards the proportion of the population in each member state born in another country, on January 1, 2022 it stood at 49.4 per cent in Luxembourg, 23.6 per cent in Malta and 22.7 per cent in Cyprus.

Of citizens from another EU country, the highest proportion was recorded in Luxembourg (33.8 per cent), followed by Cyprus (10.6 per cent) and Austria (9.3 per cent).

For citizens born in a third country, the highest percentages were recorded in Malta (15.7 per cent), followed by Luxembourg (15.6 per cent), Sweden (14.9 per cent), Estonia (13.1 per cent) and Cyprus (12.2 per cent).