A total of 4.2 million people immigrated to the EU from non-EU countries in 2024. A further 1.5 million people moved between EU countries during the same year, Eurostat reported on Friday.
This does not include asylum seekers and some people displaced from Ukraine under temporary protection in certain countries, Eurostat said.
Across the EU, immigration from outside the bloc worked out at an estimated 9.2 immigrants per 1,000 residents in 2024.
Malta recorded the highest overall immigration rate from EU and non-EU countries, with 60 immigrants per 1,000 residents, followed by Cyprus with 42 and Luxembourg with 38.
Slovakia had the lowest rate at 1 immigrant per 1,000 residents, followed by France with 6, it added. Italy, Latvia, Bulgaria and Poland each recorded 8 immigrants per 1,000 residents.
Most countries saw more arrivals from outside the EU than from within
In nearly all EU countries, the number of immigrants arriving from outside the EU was higher than the number arriving from other EU countries in 2024, Eurostat said.
Luxembourg and Romania were the exceptions: 85.5% of immigrants to Luxembourg came from other EU countries, while the figure in Romania was 56.0%.
Czechia recorded one of the highest shares of immigrants arriving from outside the EU, at 87.0%, followed by Italy at 86.2% and Spain at 84.5%.
