Foreigners welcome? Romania becomes more attractive to citizens of other EU states as resident country

Romania seems more attractive to foreigners from Europe as the number of people with the citizenship of another EU state residing in Romania has grown by almost 3 times during the last 4 years.

According to fresh Eurostat data, the number of people residing in Romania with citizenship of another EU country on January 1, 2018, was 56,750, up from 20,618 in 2014 or 53,543 in 2017.

During the same time, the number of people residing in Romania with citizenship of a non-member country was 54,352 last year, down from 60,600 in 2017 – but up from 52,529 in 2014.

Romania also registered last year as residents 299 stateless persons.

In the EU member states, the number of people residing with citizenship of a non-member country on January 1, 2018, was 22.3 million, representing 4.4 percent of the EU population.

In addition, there were 17.6 million people living in one of the EU countries with the citizenship of another EU member state.

In most EU member states, the majority of non-nationals were citizens of non-EU countries, Romania being an exception from this perspective.

In relative terms, the EU member state with the highest share of non-nationals was Luxembourg, as non-nationals accounted for 48 percent of its total population.

“A high proportion of foreign citizens (10 percent or more of the resident population) was also observed in Cyprus, Austria, Estonia, Malta, Latvia, Belgium, Ireland and Germany. In contrast, non-nationals represented less than 1 percent of the population in Poland, Romania and Lithuania,” Eurostat said.