Romanians are the only European citizens from the top 10 nationalities who take the citizenship of one of the EU states. The ranking also includes migrants from Morocco, Syria or Brazil, according to data provided by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.
Almost one million people obtained the citizenship of one of the member states of the European Union in 2022. The increase brought by the new citizens is 0.2%, compared to the population of approximately 450 million inhabitants of the EU.
“87% of those who received the citizenship of an EU country in 2022 are former citizens of third countries, while the rest belonged to another EU country, mainly Romania”, reports the website Schengenvisainfo, which processed Eurostat data.
In the ranking of the nationalities that received the status of European citizen in 2022, Romanians occupy the 4th place:
Morocco – 112,700
Syria – 90,400
Albania – 50,300
Romania – 37,700
Turkey – 29,700
Ukraine is in sixth place, followed by Brazil, India, the Republic of Moldova and Russia.
Half of those who have received European citizenship are 31 or younger, and 39% are under 25, according to Eurostat data. Greece has the youngest new naturalized citizens, where half of those granted citizenship are under 21.
The observation of the large number of Romanians who applied for the citizenship of another EU state (in some of the states Romanian citizenship can also be kept) is valid for the entire period 2018-2022, analyzed by Schengenvisainfo.
Romania remains consistently on the 4th place in the ranking of the last five years. And the figure of 37,700 Romanians who received the citizenship of another EU state in 2022 marks a 43% increase compared to the 26,000 Romanians who obtained in 2020 or 2021 the passport of another state in the Union.
As for the “receiving” states, those that grant citizenship, Italy leads the list, with 213,000 accepted citizens, a share of 22% of the total. Spain is next, with 18% of the total, and then Germany, with 17%. These three countries saw the biggest year-on-year growth, while France, the Netherlands and Portugal saw the biggest declines in the granting of citizenships.
In absolute numbers, Italy, Spain or Germany receive many more citizens than Romania. With 13,400 citizenships granted in 2022, according to Eurostat, we do not enter the TOP 10 number of citizenships offered by EU countries. In relative terms, however, our country has a high rate of naturalization, acceptance through citizenship of foreigners living on Romanian territory.
In 2022, Romania recorded the highest naturalization rate among EU countries, with 26.8 citizens granted per 100 foreign residents, notes Schengenvisainfo, Sweden was at 10.6, followed by the Netherlands, with 4.4, and Italy , with 4.2.
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