Filenews 16 February 2026 - by Theano Thiopoulou
Some 46.7 million people (10.4%) of the 450.6 million people living in the EU on 1 January 2025 were born outside the EU, representing 10.4% of the EU population. This represents an increase of 1.9 million compared to the previous year, according to data published by Eurostat.
In absolute numbers, the largest number of people born abroad living in EU countries on 1 January 2025 were found in Germany (17.2 million), France (9.6 million), Spain (9.5 million) and Italy (6.9 million). However, the highest relative proportion of foreign-born persons in the total population was recorded in Luxembourg (51.5% of the resident population), followed by Malta (32.0%), Cyprus (27.6%), Ireland (23.3%), Austria (22.5%), Sweden (20.8%) and Germany (20.5%). In contrast, foreign-born people made up less than 5% of the population in Poland (2.6% of the permanent population on 1 January 2025), Romania (3.6%), Bulgaria (3.8%) and Slovakia (4.0%).
On 1 January 2025, around 30.6 million non-EU nationals resided in an EU country, representing 6.8% of the EU population. This represents an increase of 1.6 million compared to the previous year. In addition, around 14.1 million people living in one of the EU countries on 1 January 2025 were citizens of another EU country, representing an increase of 0.1 million compared to the previous year. In absolute numbers, the largest number of foreigners living in EU countries on 1 January 2025 was found in Germany (12.4 million), Spain (6.9 million), France (6.5 million) and Italy (5.4 million). Foreigners in these 4 EU countries accounted for a total of 69.7% of the total number of foreigners living in the EU, while the same 4 EU countries accounted for 57.8% of the EU population.
In relative terms, the EU country with the highest share of foreigners on 1 January 2025 was Luxembourg, where foreigners accounted for 47.0% of the total population. High percentages of foreign nationals were also observed in Malta (29.4%) and Cyprus (24.8%). In contrast, foreigners accounted for less than 3% of the population in Poland (1.2%), Slovakia (1.2%), Romania (1.6%), Bulgaria (2.3%) and Hungary (2.7%).
In relative terms, Luxembourg also had the largest share of citizens of other EU countries, 35.8%, followed by Cyprus with 10.1% and Austria with 10.0%. In contrast, Poland and Lithuania (0.1% of the permanent population), Latvia (0.2%), Romania (0.3%), Bulgaria (0.5%), Croatia (0.6%), Slovakia (0.7%) and Hungary (0.9%) had the smallest shares of citizens of other EU countries in the population. In the cases of Estonia and Latvia, the proportion of third-country nationals is particularly high due to the large number of recognised non-citizens (mainly citizens of the former Soviet Union, who reside permanently in these countries but have not acquired any other citizenship).
