Eurostat: First residence permits issued in EU up by 10.1% in 2025

In 2025, European Union countries issued 3.9 million first residence permits to non-EU citizens, a 10.1 per cent increase (+355 350) compared with 2024, EU statistics agency Eurostat said on September 11.

Employment was the main reason for issuing new permits in the EU, accounting for about one-third of all first residence permits issued in 2025 (1.3 million or 33.6 per cent).

Family reasons were the second most common, with 1.1 million first permits (28.1 per cent), followed by other reasons, including international protection (0.9 million or 22.8 per cent).

The remaining first permits were issued for education-related reasons (0.6 million; 15.5 per cent).

Compared with 2024, employment-related first permits increased by 16.1 per cent, first permits for family reasons by 14.1 per cent and those for education by 9.0 per cent. Other reasons, including international protection, were the only category in which the number of first permits fell (-0.9 per cent).

In 2025, citizens of Ukraine (335 100), India (227 600) and Morocco (202 100) received the highest number of first residence permits.

At the end of 2025, there were in total 27.8 million valid residence permits granted to non-EU citizens.

Family reunification was the main reason, accounting for 32.4 per cent of all permits.

Moroccan citizens held the highest number of permits at the end of 2025 (2.2 million), followed by Turkish citizens (2.0 million) and Ukrainian citizens (1.7 million).

(Main photo: Council of the EU)