Migration in Europe in 2024 marks a return to normality after the extreme disruptions experienced in 2022. While in 2022 ******* saw the largest negative net migration balance, with almost * million of its citizens fleeing the eastern European country in the aftermath of Russia's invasion, in 2024 it is in fact the country with the largest positive net migration balance. Over **** million Ukrainians have returned to their home country from abroad, leading Poland, Romania, and Hungary to have large net migration deficits, as they were key recipient countries for Ukrainians in 2022. The other countries which experienced large positive net migration balances in 2023 are all in Western Europe, as the UK, the Netherlands, France, Italy, and Spain all remain popular destinations for migrants.

This release replaces the previous annual and quarterly publications Control of Immigration Statistics and the annual British Citizenship, following a public consultation. Each topic now has its own entry, links to these related reports can be found under the "additional links" section. The European Economic Area (EEA) consists of countries within the EU, together with Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Nationals of the EEA and Switzerland have rights of free movement within the United Kingdom. This means that there is less information on numbers coming to the United Kingdom than for nationals of other countries. This topic brief brings together the information that is known about these nationals.

In 2025, the European country registering the largest number of migrants' arrivals was Italy. As of June 2025, 27,000 immigrants reached the Italian peninsula by sea. Spain had the second-largest number of arrivals by sea, 16,400 immigrants, both from the Wester Mediterranean route and the Wester African Atlantic route.

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the majority of documented migration to the United States of American came from European countries. Between 1820 and 1957, of the approximate 41 million migrants to the US, over 34 million of these came from Europe. The most commonly documented countries of origin during this time were Germany (6.6 million), Italy (4.9 million), Ireland (4.6 million), Great Britain (4.5 million), and Russia (3.4 million). The first wave of mass migration came in the 1850s, as the Great famine crippled Ireland's population, and many in rural areas of mainland Europe struggled to adapt to industrialization, and economic opportunities attracted many in the 1870s, following the American Civil War. The 1880s saw another wave, as steam powered ships and lower fares made trans-Atlantic journeys much more affordable. The first wave of mass migration from Eastern and Southern Europe also arrived at this time, as industrialization and agricultural advancements led to high unemployment in these regions.

The majority of migrants to the United States settled in major urban centers, which allowed the expansion of industry, leading to the United States' emergence as one of the leading global economies at the turn of the twentieth century. The largest wave of migration to the United states during this period came in the first fifteen years of the 1900s. The influx of migrants from Northern and Western Europe had now been replaced by an influx from Eastern and Southern Europe (although migration from the British Isles was still quite high during this time). European migration fell to it's lowest levels in eighty years during the First World War, before fluctuating again in the interwar period, due to the Great Depression. As the twentieth century progressed, the continent with the highest levels of migration to the US gradually changed from Europe to Latin America, as economic opportunities in Western Europe improved, and the US' relationship with the Soviet Union and other Eastern, communist states became complicated.

Historical dataset showing European Union immigration statistics by year from 1960 to 2015.

Eurostat's annual collections of statistics on international migration flows are structured as follows:

• NOWCAST: Annual collection of provisional monthly data on live births and deaths covering at least 6 months of the reference year (Article 4.3 of https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2014/205/oj/eng" target="_self">Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 205/2014) and provisional monthly data on migrants covering at least 6 months of the reference year on a voluntary basis.
• DEMOBAL (Demographic balance): Annual collection of provisional data on population, total live births and total deaths at national level (Article 4.1 of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 205/2014) and provisional data on total migrants at national level on a voluntary basis.
• POPSTAT (population statistics): The most in-depth annual national and regional data collection on demography and migration, for population, births, deaths, immigrants, emigrants, marriages and divorces by a large number of breakdowns. (Article 3 of Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 and Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007).

The aim is to collect annual mandatory and voluntary data from the national statistical institutes. Mandatory data are those defined by the legislation listed under ‘6.1. Institutional mandate — legal acts and other agreements’.

The quality of the demographic data collected on a voluntary basis depends on the availability and quality of information provided by the national statistical institutes.

For more information on mandatory/voluntary data collection, see 6.1. Institutional mandate — legal acts and other agreements.

The following data on migrants are collected under unified demographic data collection:

• Immigrants by age, sex and:
  • Country of citizenship;
  • Country of birth;
  • Country of previous residence.
• Immigrants by country of citizenship and country of birth.
• Emigrants by age, sex and:
  • Country of citizenship;
  • Country of birth;
  • Country of next residence.

In 2021, Germany, Spain, and France were the countries which saw the highest immigration in the European Union. Germany alone say over 870,000 immigrants entering the country in that year, with a majority coming from non-EU countries. There is significant variation in the make-up of the inflows of migrants in different EU member states, with countries such as Spain and Italy seeing large majorities coming from outside the EU, while France and Germany saw roughly an equal number of migrants coming from other EU countries or being returning citizens of those countries. The Netherlands and Belgium stand out as countries which saw more intra-EU migrants than non-EU migrants, with approximately 90,000 and 63,000 moving to these countries respectively from within the EU. Several EU member states saw the greatest share of migrants being citizens of the country themselves, with Romania, Ireland, Greece, and Portugal being notable in this respect. These countries have all seen large flows of people working in other EU member states in recent years, who in many case return to their country of origin within a couple of years.

Norway Immigration: Europe: Germany data was reported at 1,403.000 Person in 2017. This records a decrease from the previous number of 1,534.000 Person for 2016. Norway Immigration: Europe: Germany data is updated yearly, averaging 897.000 Person from Dec 1967 (Median) to 2017, with 51 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 4,580.000 Person in 2008 and a record low of 580.000 Person in 1979. Norway Immigration: Europe: Germany data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Statistics Norway. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Norway – Table NO.G006: Immigration: by Country.

United States Immigrants Admitted: Europe data was reported at 84,335.000 Person in 2017. This records a decrease from the previous number of 93,567.000 Person for 2016. United States Immigrants Admitted: Europe data is updated yearly, averaging 104,629.000 Person from Sep 1986 (Median) to 2017, with 32 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 165,507.000 Person in 2001 and a record low of 61,174.000 Person in 1987. United States Immigrants Admitted: Europe data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by US Department of Homeland Security. The data is categorized under Global Database’s USA – Table US.G087: Immigration.

Migration data in EU in 2023 based on Eurostat datasets.

Including: People living in the EU in 2023, Foreign-born residents per country, Reasons to stay in Europe, Employment of immigrants, Refugees in Europe, Migration to and from the EU, Seeking asylum in Europe, Irregular border crossings

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Residence permits data collection refers to residence permits as any authorisation issued by the authorities of a Member State allowing a third-country national (non-EU citizen) to stay legally on its territory. These statistics cover also some specific cases in which the third-country nationals have the right to be move to and stay in other EU Member States.

Data is based on administrative sources¹, provided mainly by the Ministries of Interior or related Immigration Agencies. Data are generally disseminated in July in the year following the reference year, subject to data availability and data quality.

Residence permits statistics is based on http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32007R0862" target="_blank">Council Regulation (CE) No 862 of 11 July 2007 (Migration Statistics Regulation) as amended by the Regulation 2020/851 and it covers the following topics:

• the main RESPER data collection based on Article 6 of the Migration Statistics Regulation
  • First residence permits;
  • Residence permits issued on the occasion of changing the immigration status or reason to stay;
  • Residence permits valid at the end of the year;
  • Long-term residence permits valid at the end of the year;
  • Long-term permits issued during the year.

• Statistics collected on voluntary basis
  • Residence permits issued for family reunification with beneficiaries of protection status.

The definitions used for residence permits and other concepts (e.g. first permit) are presented in the section 3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions. The detailed data collection methodology is presented in Annex 9 of this metadata file.

Temporary protection status is considered of different administrative nature then the residence permits reported in RESPER data collection. Therefore, persons benefitting from temporary protection are not included in any of the Residence permits statistics. These persons are subject of another data collection on Temporary Protection (TP).

LEGAL FRAMEWORK

Residence data contain statistical information based on Article 6 of http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32007R0862" target="_blank">Council Regulation (CE) No 862 of 11 July 2007. This legal framework refers to the initial residence permits data collection with 2008 first reference period (e.g. first residence permits; change of immigration status or reason to stay; all valid residence permits in the end of the year and long-term residence permits valid in the end of the year) and it provides also a general framework for newer data collections based on specific European legal acts (e.g. statistics on EU Blue Cards and statistics on single permits) or provided on voluntary basis (e.g. residence permits issued for family reunification with beneficiaries of protection status).

Regulation 2020/851 amending Council Regulation (CE) No 862 of 11 July 2007 was recently implemented. The amendment introduced several changes to the statistics on Asylum and Managed Migration. Some data collections become mandatory starting with the 2021 reference period, while new statistics are subject to pilot studies for further assessing the feasibility of collecting these statistics.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

Starting with the 2021 reference period, there were several improvements in the data collection, including the methodological aspects. These changes were introduced through the implementation of Regulation 2020/851 amending Council Regulation (CE) No 862 of 11 July 2007. More details are available in the Annex 9.

Starting from 2025, the residence permits and EU directives data collection now includes six metadata files in total. Countries are required to submit six distinct files. For those that have not yet provided the updated six files, the previous metadata format, included in the annex of this metadata file (Annex 10), remains available as a reference.

INDICATORS

The indicators presented in the table 'Long-term residents among all non-EU citizens holding residence permits by citizenship on 31 December (%)' are produced within the framework of the pilot study related to the integration of migrants in the Member States, following the Zaragoza Declaration.

The Zaragoza Declaration, adopted in April 2010 by EU Ministers responsible for immigrant integration issues, and approved at the Justice and Home Affairs Council on 3-4 June 2010, called upon the Commission to undertake a pilot study to examine proposals for common integration indicators and to report on the availability and quality of the data from agreed harmonised sources necessary for the calculation of these indicators. In June 2010 the ministers agreed "to promote the launching of a pilot project with a view to the evaluation of integration policies, including examining the indicators and analysing the significance of the defined indicators taking into account the national contexts, the background of diverse migrant populations and different migration and integration policies of the Member States, and reporting on the availability and quality of the data from agreed harmonised sources necessary for the calculation of these indicators".

These indicators are produced on the basis of residence permit statistics collected by Eurostat on the basis of Article 6 of the Migration Statistics Regulation 862/2007. As a denominator data on the stock of all valid permits to stay at the end of each reporting year are used. As a numerator data on the stock of long-term residents are used. Two types of long term residents are distinguished in accordance with the residence permit statistics: EU long-term resident status (as regulated by the Council Directive 2003/109/EC) and the National long-term resident status (as regulated by the national legislation in the Member States).

DATA CONSISTENCY

The data providers should use the same methodological specifications provided by Eurostat and some collected tables from should be cross-consistent according to this methodology. However, consistency issues between tables exist due to some technical limitations (e.g. different data sources) or different methodology applied to each table (see the quality information from below or the national metadata files) or different point in time of producing each tables.

¹There are few exceptions referring to the situation in which the administrative registers cannot provide the required information and some estimations are made. For example, the statistics for the United Kingdom (2008-2019) use different data sources to those used in EU Member States and EFTA countries. For that reason, the statistics on residence permits published by Eurostat for UK may not be fully comparable with the statistics reported by other countries. Statistics for the United Kingdom are not based on records of residence permits issued (as the United Kingdom does not operate a system of residence permits), but instead relate to the numbers of arriving non-EU citizens permitted to enter the country under selected immigration categories. According to the United Kingdom authorities, data are estimated from a combination of information due to be published in the Home Office Statistical Bulletin 'Control of Immigration: Statistics, United Kingdom' and unpublished management information. The 'Other reasons' category includes: diplomat, consular officer treated as exempt from control; retired persons of independent means; all other passengers given limited leave to enter who are not included in any other category; non-asylum discretionary permissions. Another example is the data on stock of all valid residence permits for Denmark, see Annex 8 (Data quality of valid residence permits in Denmark).

As of 2022, Germany was the European Union country which had the most people who were citizens of non-EU countries, with over *** million people. France, Spain, and Italy all had between *** and **** million citizens of non-EU countries living within their borders. No other EU country had more than a million non-EU citizens living in their country in 2022.

This release replaces the previous annual and quarterly publications Control of Immigration Statistics and the annual British Citizenship, following a public consultation. Each topic now has its own entry, links to these related reports can be found under the "additional links" section. There are a range of measures that can be used to understand trends in immigration to the United Kingdom for work, for those people who are subject to immigration control. These include: issues of visas for entry clearance, providing information about those intending to come to the United Kingdom for work; work-related admissions data, providing information on migrants at the border; number of people allocated national insurance numbers, giving an indication of migrants entering the labour market; and estimates on non-EU immigration from the International Passenger Survey on migrants intending to stay for at least a year for work purposes. In addition, grants of (in-country) extensions of stay for work purposes provide information on migrants in-country, while work-related grants of settlement provides a measure of longer term migration.

This chapter investigates the effects of immigration on European democracies. After taking stock of the impact of international migration on European societies, it examines how such demographic processes relate to political and economic developments. Furthermore, the analysis sheds light on changes in public opinion over time, describes differences and similarities across countries, and examines the effects of the 2015 immigration and refugee crisis. It also shows that there is a relationship between democracy, politics, and the economy, and preferences regarding immigrants, the regulations of immigration, and refugee policies.

Germany Emigration: Europe data was reported at 894,520.000 Person in 2023. This records an increase from the previous number of 854,879.000 Person for 2022. Germany Emigration: Europe data is updated yearly, averaging 495,836.000 Person from Dec 1964 (Median) to 2023, with 60 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 894,520.000 Person in 2023 and a record low of 297,311.000 Person in 1987. Germany Emigration: Europe data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Statistisches Bundesamt. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Germany – Table DE.G005: Migration.

Quarterly statistics relating to information on border control and visas, asylum, managed migration, and enforcement and compliance.

Source agency: Home Office

Designation: National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: Control of Immigration: Quarterly statistics

Graph and download economic data for Net migration for the European Union (SMPOPNETMEUU) from 1962 to 2017 about migration, EU, Europe, Net, and 5-year.

This release replaces the previous annual and quarterly publications Control of Immigration Statistics and the annual British Citizenship, following a public consultation. Each topic now has its own entry, links to these related reports can be found under the "additional links" section. The figures show the number of people, subject to immigration control, that are granted or refused permission to stay indefinitely.

This statistic presents the perceived number of immigrants in Europe in 2018. According to data published by Ipsos, respondents in Germany think ** people out of 100 are immigrants in their country, while actual figures show only ** people are. Overall, the proportion of immigrants is overestimated by most of the respondents in these countries.