NICOSIA – Some 22.7 percent of Cypriots weren’t born on the island, ranking the country second highest in the 27-member European Union in that category, data released by the bloc’s statistics agency Eurostat said.

And about 27 migrants for every 1,000 people arrived in Cyprus from outside the EU in 2021, which means – added to Cypriots born in the other countries the total of foreign born was even higher, reported Cypriot media.

Although Cyprus is the country with the second highest percentage of citizens born in another member state (10.6 percent) it is fifth in citizens born in a third country (12.2 percent) the report said.

In 2021, around 2.3 million migrants from third countries arrived in the EU from outside the bloc and around 1.1 million people migrated from the EU to a non-EU country in 2021, a big jump from the COVID pandemic year of 202.

Cyprus, in 2021 had the third highest proportion of migrant arrivals per 1,000 people. The EU averaged around five migrants per 1,000 people, while the highest proportion was recorded in Luxembourg (almost 40 per 1,000) and Malta (35) the newspaper said.