Romania among EU states with the lowest proportion of immigrants

Romania is among the European states with the lowest proportion of immigrants in its population, according to the latest Eurostat data from January 2024, as analyzed by Visual Capitalist. Only 3% of the country’s population, or approximately 588,000 people, are immigrants.

The data includes people with residence of more than 12 months in a country, whether they have a work permit, residence permit, or are registered in tax or insurance records. Illegal migrants or those not appearing in administrative records are not included in the ranking. At the same time, most states, including Romania, also include in the statistics Ukrainian citizens under temporary protection.

Of the immigrants currently present in Romania, 218,000 come from European Union member states, and 371,000 from outside the Union.

Romania is ranked 30th out of 31 countries analyzed by Visual Capitalist, surpassing only Bulgaria (3% and 212,000 immigrants) and being close to Poland (3% and 936,000 immigrants), but far behind the states of Western Europe. As such, the country can hardly be labeled as a destination for migrants, especially when compared to other EU states.

Germany hosts nearly 17 million people who are immigrants (20% of the population), and France almost 10 million (15%).

The countries with the highest shares are Liechtenstein (70%), Luxembourg (51%), and Switzerland (31%), the first two being very small states.

“While economic convergence has narrowed wage gaps between the two sides of Europe, western job markets and higher living standards still attract Eastern Europeans, leaving a noticeable demographic imbalance across the EU,” the authors of the report say.

(Photo source: Cateyeperspective | Dreamstime.com)