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Law in Charts · Migration and asylum

First residence permits for family reasons per 100,000 inhabitants

How many first residence permits for family reasons (joining or forming a family) did each European country issue, for its population?

32 of 32 shown in the list

first permits per 100,000 inhabitants

  1. Liechtenstein1,592 2025
  2. Luxembourg745 2025
  3. Spain562 2025
  4. Cyprus540 2025
  5. Malta497 2025
  6. Finland383 2025
  7. Slovenia376 2025
  8. Iceland327 2025
  9. Italy300 2025
  10. Belgium294 2025
  11. Sweden292 2025
  12. Germany270 2025
  13. Netherlands238 2025
  14. Portugal237 2025
  15. Austria216 2025
  16. Denmark213 2025
  17. Norway208 2025
  18. Switzerland201 2025
  19. Greece180 2025
  20. France132 2025
  21. Lithuania125 2025
  22. Poland112 2025
  23. Czechia109 2025
  24. Estonia97 2025
  25. Serbia92 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 Liechtenstein at 1,592 (2025) and the lowest is Romania at 35 (2025).
  • The middle value (the median) is 210.

What it counts

First residence permits issued to people from outside the country's citizen group for family reasons (joining or forming a family) 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 family reasons per 100,000 inhabitants [Chart]. Law in Charts. https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/family-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/family-permits-per-100000). Data: Eurostat.

BibTeX

@misc{familypermitsper1000002026,
  author = {{TheLawToKnow}},
  title = {First residence permits for family reasons per 100,000 inhabitants},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Law in Charts},
  url = {https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/family-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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