The number of first residence permits issued by Malta last year was by far the highest among EU member states as a proportion of the population.

Data issued this morning by Eurostat shows that 2.8 million residence permits were issued by the EU’s 28 member states in 2013.

In 2013, the highest number of residence permits was reported by the United Kingdom (724 200 residence permits issued, or 30.7% of total permits issued in the EU28), followed by Poland (273 900, or 11.6%), Italy (244 000, or 10.3%), France (212 100, or 9.0%), Germany (199 900, or 8.5%) and Spain (196 200, or 8.3%). Together, these six Member States accounted for almost 80% of all residence permits issued in the EU28 in 2013.

Malta issued 10,187 permits, the third lowest after Slovakia (4,416) and Slovenia (8,271).

But compared with the population of each member state, the highest rates of first residence permits issued in 2013 were recorded in Malta (24.1 first permits issued per thousand inhabitants), Cyprus (13.3), the United Kingdom (11.3) and Sweden (10.3). Rates below 1 permit per thousand inhabitants were observed in four Member States: Romania (0.6), Croatia and Slovakia (both 0.8) and Bulgaria (0.9).

In 2013, 4.7 first residence permits were issued per thousand inhabitants in the EU28.

 

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