Nearly 1.2 million people were granted citizenship of an EU country where they lived in 2024, up 11.6% on the previous year.
A total of about 1.2 million people acquired citizenship in 2024, an increase of 122,700 compared with 2023, Eurostat reported on Friday.
The number was also 54.5% higher than in 2014, when 762,100 citizenships were granted.
Germany granted the most new citizenships at 288,700, followed by Spain with 252,500 and Italy with 217,400.
These three countries accounted for roughly two thirds of all citizenships granted across the EU.
Most new citizens were from outside the EU, with 88.0% coming from non-EU countries, while 10.6% were citizens of other EU member states.
Syrians were the largest group of new EU citizens
Syrian nationals received the most citizenships in 2024, with 110,100 granted, followed by Moroccan nationals with 97,100 and Albanians with 48,000, Eurostat said.
The organisation also published naturalisation rates — a measure of how many people acquire citizenship in a year compared with the number of non-national residents living in the country at the start of the year.
Sweden recorded the highest naturalisation rate in 2024 at 7.5 citizenships per 100 non-national residents, followed by Italy at 4.1 and Spain and the Netherlands at 3.9 each.
The lowest naturalisation rates were recorded in Lithuania at 0.1 per 100 non-national residents, and in Bulgaria and Estonia at 0.3 each.
