Moroccans, Albanians, Indians and Turks, main beneficiaries of EU citizenship

According to the latest figures published by the European statistical office (Eurostat), 825 000 persons acquired a citizenship of a Member State in the European Union (EU) in 2017.

The Member States where most people acquired citizenship in 2017 were Italy (18% of all acquired citizenships in the EU), the United Kingdom (15%), Germany and France (14% each), Sweden and Spain (8% each).

The numbers provided by Eurostat show that at the EU level the main beneficiaries of an EU citizenship were people from Morocco (8%), Albania (7%), India and Turkey (4% each).

France, Spain and Italy (together 83%) were the main Member States where people from Morocco acquired citizenship, while for those from Albania it was in Greece and Italy (together 97%). The United Kingdom (53%) was the main Member State where the population from India acquired citizenship, while for those from Turkey it was Germany (50%).

The case of Finland

As regards Finland, the country granted its citizenship to 12,219 applicants in 2017. Of them, the main group were Russians (2758), followed by Somalis (957) and Iraqis (742).

However, a look at the figures for each of these three nationalities shows that in terms of citizenship Finland was not their favorite target. In the case of Russians, the first option (taken by the largest group of them, 22.7%) was to acquire the German citizenship. The second most popular choice was French citizenship, acquired  and 17%. Finland was their third option, taken by 13,2% of the Russians who became EU citizens.

For Somalis, the vast majority of them acquired the citizenship of Sweden (54%), then comes the Netherlands (20,1%) and the United Kingdom (13.9%). Finland was the fourth most popular option, taken by the 6.4% of those immigrants.

The numbers relating to Iraqis show that 30.2% of those who were nationalized inside of the EU acquired the German citizenship; 28.4% took the Swedish; 12.1% became citizens of the Netherlands and 8.1% are now Belgians.

If you want to check the numbers for your country of origin or Member State of residence, you can access to Eurostat's interactive graphic HERE