Europe's Foreign-Born Population in 2023

In 2022, 5.1 million people immigrated to the EU from non-EU countries, while 1.0 million people emigrated from the EU to destinations outside the EU.  The inflow of immigrants from non-EU countries more than doubled compared to the estimated 2.4 million in 2021. Conversely, the number of EU residents emigrating to countries outside the EU remained stable, with 1.0 million emigrants in 2021.

Foreign-Born Population

On 1 January 2023, more than half (50.4%) of the population in Luxembourg was foreign-born. Malta (28.3%) and Cyprus (22.7%) completed the top 3 EU countries with the highest shares of foreign-born population. In contrast, the lowest shares were recorded in Poland (2.5%), Bulgaria (2.6%) and Romania (2.8%). 

In absolute terms, the largest numbers of foreign-born residents (from other EU countries and non-EU countries) were registered in Germany (16.5 million people), France (8.9 million) and Spain (8.2 million).