Almost 1.2 million new EU citizens in 2024, Italy ranking second for naturalisations

Brussels – In 2024, nearly 1.18 million people were granted citizenship in the EU country where they habitually reside, marking an increase of 11.6 per cent compared to the previous year (equivalent to an additional 122,700 people). According to Eurostat data, the EU’s statistical office, the total number of new citizens reached 1,177,232, a surge led by Germany, which recorded 88,900 more acquisitions than in 2023, Spain (12,300 more) and France (6,400 more). Over the course of a decade, the number of citizenships granted has increased by 54.5 per cent compared to 2014, when a total of 762,100 were granted. 

At Member State level, the distribution of new citizenships appears to be heavily concentrated: Germany (288,700), Spain (252,500) and Italy (217,400) alone accounted for almost two-thirds (64.4 per cent) of the EU total. France (103,700) and Sweden (63,000) follow some way behind. The largest increases compared to 2023 were recorded in Denmark (86.4 per cent), Slovakia (59.2 per cent), Germany (44.5 per cent), and Malta (38.8 per cent), whilst the most significant decreases were recorded in Romania (-67.9 per cent), Estonia (-29.7 per cent), and Hungary (-28.3 per cent). 

One notable figure is that in 2024, Italy had a naturalisation rate (the ratio of the total number of citizenships granted to the non-national population present in a country at the start of the year) of 4.1 per cent, higher than the EU average of 2.7 per cent and surpassed only by Sweden (7.5 per cent), followed by Spain and the Netherlands (both at 3.9 per cent). As Eurostat points out, this is a commonly used indicator for measuring the effect of national policies on citizenship, and variations in this figure can also be attributed to changes in the non-national population and in how the latter is measured. In any case, among new Italian citizens, Albanians (65.9 per cent of the EU total for this nationality), Romanians (37 per cent), and Moroccans (28.5 per cent) stand out: three of the five largest groups by previous nationality in 2024. 

As regards the origin of the new European citizens, the vast majority (88 per cent) were nationals of a non-EU country. Syrians constitute the largest group (110,100 people, 9.3 per cent of the total), followed by Moroccans (97,100), Albanians (48,000, 4.1 per cent), Turks (41,300, 3.5 per cent), and Romanians (39,900, 3.4 per cent). The demographic profile reveals a young population with an average age of 31.7 years, 37.4 per cent of new citizens under 25, and a predominance of women (50.9 per cent) over men (49.1 per cent).