A new Eurostat release shows that in 2014, EU Member States issued 2.3 million first residence permits to third country nationals, a decrease of 2% (approximately 50,000 less) compared with 2013.
The Member States with the highest number of first residence permits issued to third country nationals in 2014, were:
- United Kingdom[1] (567,806 or 25% of all first residence permits granted to third country national in the EU)
- Poland (355,418 or 15%)
- Germany (237,627 or 10%)
- France (218,267 or 9.5%)
- Italy (204,335or 9%) and
- Spain (188,573 or 8%)
Ireland issued 36,728 first residence permits in 2014.
The total number of first residence permits issued by reason in 2014, were:-
- Family (680,025 or 29.5% of total number of permits issued)
- Education (476,817 or 20.7%)
- Employment (572,414 or 24.8%)
- Other (576,502 or 25.0%)
In the same period, the main citizenship of persons issued first residence permits in the EU were:
- Ukraine (302,772 or 13.1%)
- United States (199,244 or 8.0%)
- China[2] (169,657 or 7.4%)
- India (134,881 or 5.8%) and
- Morocco (96,273 or 4.2%)
In Ireland, the total number of first residence permits issued by reason in 2014, were:
- Family (2,526 or 6.9% of total number of permits issued)
- Education (476,817 or 20.7%)
- Employment (572,414 or 24.8%)
- Other (576,502 or 25%)
The main citizenship of persons issued first residence permits, in the same period, were:
- Brazil (8,883 or 24.2%)
- United States (4,737 or 12.9%)
- India (2,897 or 7.9 %)
- China2 (1,956 or 5.3%)
- Korea, Republic of (1,931 or 5.3%)
For more information:
See: Eurostat Residence permits statistics (October 2015)
See also: Immigration Registration Statistics
[1] Statistics for the United Kingdom use different data sources to those used in other Member States and may not be fully comparable with statistics presented by Eurostat (See Eurostat Residence permits statistics: Note 1)
[2] Including Hong Kong
