Cyprus is one of the member states of the EU in which the percentage of residents that are citizens of other countries (both from EU member states as well as from non-EU countries) is higher than 10%, coming in third place after Luxembourg and Malta, according to data released by Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical service.

At the same time, Cyprus is one of a few countries where the percentage of residents that are citizens of another EU member state is higher than the percentage of residents from non-EU countries.

According to the data released, on 1 January 2021, 11% of the residents of Cyprus were citizens of other EU member states, while 8% of residents were citizens of non-EU countries.

Overall in the European Union, 5% of residents were citizens of a non-EU country, which in absolute numbers corresponded to 23.7 million people.

The average of EU citizens living in one of the EU member states with the citizenship of another EU member states was 4%, which corresponds to a total of 13.7 million people.

The largest numbers of non-nationals living in the EU Member States were recorded in Germany (10.6 million people), Spain (5.4 million), France and Italy (both 5.2 million).

Non-nationals in these four Member States collectively represented 70.3% of the total number of non-nationals living in all EU Member States.

In relative terms, the EU Member State with the highest share of non-national citizens was Luxembourg (47% of its total population). Out of these, 38% came from a member state and 9% from a non-EU country.

A high proportion of non-nationals was also observed in Malta (8% EU citizens, 12% non-EU citizens, 20% total), Cyprus (11% plus 8%, 19% total), Austria (9% plus 8%, 17% total), Estonia (2% plus 14%, 16% total), Latvia (0% plus 13%, 13% total), Ireland (7% plus 6%, 13% total), Germany (5% plus 7%, 12% total), Belgium (8% plus 4%, 12% total) and Spain (4% plus 8%, 12% total).

In contrast, non-nationals represented less than 1% of the population in Romania. This percentage was around 1% in Poland, Slovakia and Bulgaria, at 2% in Hungary and at 3% in Croatia and Lithuania.

In most EU Member States, the majority of non-nationals were citizens of non-EU countries. Only in Luxembourg, Cyprus, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands and Slovakia were non-nationals mainly citizens of another EU Member State.

Romanian, Polish, Italian and Portuguese citizens were the four main groups of EU citizens living in other EU Member States on 1 January 2021.