Foreign citizens made up 6% of population in the European Union

On 1 January 2008, 30.8 million foreign citizens1 lived in the EU27 Member States, of which 11.3 million were citizens of another EU27 Member state. The remaining 19.5 million were citizens of countries outside the EU27, of which 6.0 million were citizens of other European countries, 4.7 million of Africa, 3.7 million of Asia and 3.2 million of the American continent. Foreign citizens accounted for 6.2% of the total EU27 population.

This news release, issued on the occasion of the International Migrants Day2 on 18 December 2009, is based on a report3 by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, on foreign citizens in the EU27 Member States, Norway and Switzerland. This report presents data either supplied by National Statistical Institutes, or approved by them if estimated by Eurostat.

For the full press release, click here