Eurostat: EU received 4.2 million immigrants from non-EU countries in 2024

In 2024, 4.2 million people immigrated to the EU from non-EU countries, the bloc’s statistics agency Eurostat said on February 27.

This figure does not include asylum seekers and/or refugees from Ukraine under temporary protection for some countries.

Additionally, 1.5 million people migrated between EU countries. 

In total, there was an estimated 9.2 immigrants from non-EU countries per 1000 residents in the EU in 2024, Eurostat said.

Relative to the size of the resident population, Malta recorded the highest rate of immigration from EU and non-EU countries in 2024 (60 immigrants per 1000 residents), followed by Cyprus (42) and Luxembourg (38). 

By contrast, Slovakia registered the lowest rate of immigration, with one immigrant per 1000 residents, followed by France (6), and Italy, Latvia, Bulgaria and Poland (all with 8). 

In nearly all EU countries, the total number of immigrants from outside the EU in 2024 was higher than the number of immigrants from other EU countries. The only exceptions were Luxembourg (with 85.5 per cent of immigrants from other EU countries) and Romania (56.0 per cent). 

The highest proportions of immigrants from countries outside the EU were recorded in Czechia (87.0 per cent), Italy (86.2 per cent) and Spain (84.5 per cent).

(Photo: Abdulhamid AlFadhly/ freeimages.com)