Romanians were by far the largest group in the European Union to get another EU state’s citizenship in 2016, according to the European statistical office Eurostat.

Almost 30,000 Romanians got another EU state’s citizenship in 2016. Some 44% of them became Italian citizens, 12.9% became Germans and 9.7% became Hungarians. Some 2,000 Romanians, namely 6.7% of the total group who got new citizenship, received citizenship in the UK.

Romanians were the sixth-largest group of people getting citizenship of a EU state where they lived, after Moroccans, Albanians, Indians, Pakistani and Turkish people.

Some 994,000 people got citizenship in EU countries in 2016, Italy, Spain and UK being the main recipients, followed by France and Germany. Romania granted citizenship to over 4,500 people, almost 90% of who were Ukrainians.

editor@romania-insider.com