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Law in Charts · Migration and asylum

First residence permits for study per 100,000 inhabitants

How many first residence permits for education reasons (study) did each European country issue, for its population?

32 of 32 shown in the list

first permits per 100,000 inhabitants

  1. Malta1,410 2025
  2. Cyprus956 2025
  3. Ireland638 2025
  4. Denmark305 2025
  5. Lithuania232 2025
  6. Hungary225 2025
  7. Spain215 2025
  8. Iceland194 2025
  9. Finland187 2025
  10. France172 2025
  11. Latvia160 2025
  12. Slovenia144 2025
  13. Switzerland141 2025
  14. Germany135 2025
  15. Luxembourg124 2025
  16. Sweden118 2025
  17. Netherlands115 2025
  18. Slovakia108 2025
  19. Portugal106 2025
  20. Belgium93 2025
  21. Czechia92 2025
  22. Austria78 2025
  23. Norway65 2025
  24. Liechtenstein64 2025
  25. Italy62 2025

Source: Eurostat, First permits by reason, length of validity and citizenship (migr_resfirst) and population on 1 January (demo_pjan). Data for 2025. What it counts, how to cite it and the data

At a glance

  • 32 countries or territories have a figure.
  • The highest is Malta at 1,410 (2025) and the lowest is Greece at 8 (2025).
  • The middle value (the median) is 117.

What it counts

First residence permits issued to people from outside the country's citizen group for education reasons (study) and valid for at least three months, divided by the population on 1 January and multiplied by 100,000, in the latest year each country reports (since 2021).

What it leaves out, and how far to trust a comparison

A permit is counted when it is first issued to a person, not renewed, and free-movement citizens of the European Union do not need one. Countries differ in what they grant a permit for and in how long it lasts, and a country that issues many short permits can show a high figure. The figure counts permits, not people who stayed.

Source

Eurostat: First permits by reason, length of validity and citizenship (migr_resfirst) and population on 1 January (demo_pjan). Source licence: CC BY 4.0. Data retrieved 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-25.

Cite this chart

Free to use in teaching, articles, reports and slides, with credit. Our compilation is licensed CC BY 4.0; the source publishes the underlying data under its own licence, shown below.

Reference (APA style)

TheLawToKnow. (2026). First residence permits for study per 100,000 inhabitants [Chart]. Law in Charts. https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/education-permits-per-100000. Data: Eurostat, First permits by reason, length of validity and citizenship (migr_resfirst) and population on 1 January (demo_pjan), https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/migr_resfirst/default/table (data retrieved 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-25).

Short credit for slides and websites

Chart: TheLawToKnow, Law in Charts (https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/education-permits-per-100000). Data: Eurostat.

BibTeX

@misc{educationpermitsper1000002026,
  author = {{TheLawToKnow}},
  title = {First residence permits for study per 100,000 inhabitants},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Law in Charts},
  url = {https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/education-permits-per-100000},
  note = {Data: Eurostat, First permits by reason, length of validity and citizenship (migr_resfirst) and population on 1 January (demo_pjan), https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/migr_resfirst/default/table. Retrieved 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-25.}
}

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