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Law in Charts · Migration and asylum

How many foreign residents acquire citizenship each year?

For every 100 foreign residents, how many acquired the citizenship of the country in the year, in each European country?

31 of 31 shown in the list

citizenships acquired per 100 foreign residents

  1. Sweden7.2 2024
  2. Norway4.3 2024
  3. Italy4.1 2024
  4. Spain3.9 2024
  5. Netherlands3.8 2024
  6. Poland3.7 2024
  7. Belgium3.5 2024
  8. Finland3.1 2024
  9. Ireland2.9 2024
  10. Germany2.4 2024
  11. Portugal2.0 2024
  12. Greece1.9 2024
  13. Luxembourg1.9 2024
  14. France1.7 2024
  15. Switzerland1.7 2024
  16. Romania1.4 2024
  17. Slovakia1.4 2024
  18. Liechtenstein1.3 2024
  19. Cyprus1.2 2024
  20. Denmark1.0 2024
  21. Iceland1.0 2024
  22. Slovenia0.8 2024
  23. Austria0.7 2024
  24. Croatia0.7 2024
  25. Hungary0.7 2024

Source: Eurostat, Acquisition of citizenship (migr_acq) and population by citizenship (migr_pop1ctz). Data for 2024. What it counts, how to cite it and the data

At a glance

  • 31 countries or territories have a figure.
  • The highest is Sweden at 7.2 (2024) and the lowest is Lithuania at 0.1 (2024).
  • The middle value (the median) is 1.4.

What it counts

People who acquired the citizenship of the country in the year, divided by the number of foreign residents on 1 January and multiplied by 100, in the latest year each country reports (since 2021).

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

The rate depends on how long residence must last before an application, whether dual citizenship is allowed, how many foreign residents are citizens of other EU countries who have little reason to apply, and how fast the authorities decide. It is not a measure of how welcoming a country is.

Source

Eurostat: Acquisition of citizenship (migr_acq) and population by citizenship (migr_pop1ctz). 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). How many foreign residents acquire citizenship each year? [Chart]. Law in Charts. https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/naturalisation-rate. Data: Eurostat, Acquisition of citizenship (migr_acq) and population by citizenship (migr_pop1ctz), https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/migr_acq/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/naturalisation-rate). Data: Eurostat.

BibTeX

@misc{naturalisationrate2026,
  author = {{TheLawToKnow}},
  title = {How many foreign residents acquire citizenship each year?},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Law in Charts},
  url = {https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/naturalisation-rate},
  note = {Data: Eurostat, Acquisition of citizenship (migr_acq) and population by citizenship (migr_pop1ctz), https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/migr_acq/default/table. Retrieved 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-25.}
}

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