After Luxembourg, Cyprus has the highest number of foreign nationals living on the island as a percentage of population than any other EU member state, according to a new Eurostat report published this weekend.

On January 1, 2014, the member states had 506.8 million residents, of which 472.8 million were nationals (citizens of the reporting country) and 34.1 million foreign citizens – some 6 per cent.

The latter group consisted of 14.3 million citizens of another member state and 19.8 million non-EU citizens.

In Cyprus, from a population of 858,000, some 80 per cent had Cypriot citizenship, Eurostat said, based on available statistics. The remaining 20 per cent were foreign nationals, either from other EU countries or third countries.

Only Luxembourg had a higher proportion of foreign nationals at 45 per cent but the vast majority – almost 40 per cent of the total population – were citizens of another EU member state, and the remainder third-country nationals.

In Cyprus, nearly 13 per cent of foreign nationals were other EU citizens and 6.6 per cent were from third countries. Cyprus’ share of other EU nationals as a percentage of population was also the second highest after Luxembourg. In every other member state the figure was under 10 per cent and in most cases actually under 5 per cent.

The top four EU nationalities in Cyprus had Greeks heading the list with 29,321 or 17 per cent of the total non-Cypriot population followed by Britons at 24,046 or 14 per cent. Romanians came in third at the same percentage level. Bulgarians at some 18,000 accounted for 11 per cent of the foreign population. From third-country nationals Filippinos topped the list at 5 per cent of the non-Cypriot populations.

Cyprus Mail