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First residence permits issued per 100,000 inhabitants

How many first residence permits for all reasons did each European country issue, for its population?

32 of 32 shown in the list

first permits per 100,000 inhabitants

  1. Malta5,693 2025
  2. Cyprus4,670 2025
  3. Portugal2,890 2025
  4. Liechtenstein2,096 2025
  5. Lithuania1,853 2025
  6. Ireland1,341 2025
  7. Croatia1,315 2025
  8. Luxembourg1,314 2025
  9. Spain1,293 2025
  10. Poland1,280 2025
  11. Slovenia1,189 2025
  12. Hungary858 2025
  13. Denmark832 2025
  14. Finland791 2025
  15. Iceland786 2025
  16. Italy735 2025
  17. Germany724 2025
  18. Greece673 2025
  19. Netherlands666 2025
  20. Belgium620 2025
  21. Austria603 2025
  22. Sweden578 2025
  23. France548 2025
  24. Switzerland511 2025
  25. Serbia508 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 5,693 (2025) and the lowest is Bulgaria at 366 (2025).
  • The middle value (the median) is 730.

What it counts

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

BibTeX

@misc{firstresidencepermitsper1000002026,
  author = {{TheLawToKnow}},
  title = {First residence permits issued per 100,000 inhabitants},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Law in Charts},
  url = {https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/first-residence-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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