Brussels: Europe and the Arabs

1.1 million people acquired the citizenship of a European Union country in which they live, during the year 2023, an increase of about 6.1% (+60,200 people) compared to 2022.
Most of the new citizenships were granted by Spain (240,200; 22.9% of the EU total), Italy (213,600; 20.3%) and Germany (199,800; 19.0%).
The majority (87.6%) of people who acquired EU citizenship were citizens of a non-EU country. The proportion of citizens of another EU country other than the country of residence was 10.7%.
This information comes from the data on the acquisition of citizenship published by the European Statistical Office in Brussels "Eurostat."
Syrians, Moroccans and Albanians are the top three recipients
In 2023, Syrian nationals were the largest group of new EU citizens, with a total of 107,500 new citizenships granted. The second largest group was Moroccan nationals with 106,500 citizenships granted, followed by Albanians (44,400).
Sweden had the highest naturalisation rate in 2023
The naturalisation rate is the ratio of the number of people who acquired the citizenship of a country they lived in during a year to the total number of non-citizen residents in the same country at the beginning of the year.
In 2023, Sweden had the highest naturalisation rate among EU countries, with 7.9 citizenships granted per 100 non-citizen residents, followed by Romania (5.9) and Italy (4.1). At the other end of the scale, the lowest naturalisation rates per 100 non-citizen residents were recorded in the Baltic states: Lithuania (0.1), Latvia (0.4) and Estonia (0.5).