Bulgaria granted citizenship to 997 people in 2018 – Eurostat
Bulgaria granted citizenship to 997 people in 2018, up by nine per cent compared with 2017, European Union statistics agency Eurostat said on March 31.
The three largest groups were people who were from Turkey, 20.7 per cent, Russia, 19.1 per cent and Ukraine 18.6 per cent, Eurostat said.
In 2018, about 672300 people acquired citizenship of one of what are now the 27 member states of the EU, down from 700 600 in 2017 and 843 900 in 2016.
Of the total number of people obtaining the citizenship of one of the EU countries in 2018, 13 per cent were former citizens of another EU member state, while the majority were non-EU citizens or stateless.
The largest group acquiring citizenship of an EU member state where they lived in 2018 was citizens of Morocco (67 200 people, of whom 84 per cent acquired citizenship of Spain, Italy or France), ahead of citizens of Albania (47 400, 97 per cent acquired citizenship of Greece or Italy), Turkey (28 400, 59 per cent acquired German citizenship),Brazil (23 100, 76 per cent became citizens of Italy or Portugal), Romania (21 500, 51 per cent became citizens of Italy or Germany), Algeria (18400, 81 per cent got French citizenship),the United Kingdom (16 200, 59 per cent got citizenship of Germany or France), Syria (16 000, 66 per cent got citizenship of Sweden), Russia (15 800, 31 per cent got German citizenship) and Ukraine (15400, 55 per cent got citizenship of Germany, Poland or Italy).
Romanians (21 500 persons), Poles (13900) and Italians (8 100) were the three largest groups of EU citizens acquiring citizenship of another EU member state, Eurostat said.
