Malta had over double number of non-EU citizens with a residence permit at end 2019 than end 2016

At the end of 2019, there were more than double the number of valid residence permits permitting non-EU citizens to reside in Malta than at the end of 2016, Eurostat figures show.

Statistics showing all valid permits on 31 December of each year reveal that on that day in 2019, there were 48,053 citizens with valid resident permits in Malta, while on the same day in 2016, this number stood at 20, 661.

At the end of 2019, there were 20.3 million valid residence permits permitting non-EU citizens to reside in the EU.

The number of valid residence permits at the end of 2019 was highest in Germany (4.9 million, or 24% of the total stock of valid residence permits in the EU), followed by Italy (3.6 million, or 18%), France (3.1 million, or 15%) and Spain (2.9 million, or 14%). These four Member States together accounted for 71% of the total number of valid residence permits granted to non-EU citizens.

At the end of 2019, citizens of Morocco were the largest group holding valid residence permits (2 million), followed by citizens of Turkey (1.9 million), Ukraine (1.3 million) and China (including Hong Kong; 1 million). These were the only citizenships that held more than one million valid residence permits.

The next highest numbers were recorded for citizens of Syria (974,000), Albania (868,000), Algeria (700,000), Russia (689,000), India (555,000) and Serbia (504,000). Citizens of these 10 countries accounted for more than half (51%) of the total number of permits among non-EU citizens holding a valid residence permit in the EU-27.