Foreign citizens account for over 6 percent of EU population

BRUSSELS - On 1 January 2008, 30.8 million foreign citizens lived in the 27 EU countries, of whom 11.3 millions were citizens of another EU member state. The remaining 19.5 millions were citizens of countries outside the EU, of whom 6 millions were citizens of other non-EU European countries, 4.7 millions from Africa, 3.7 millions from Asia and 3.2 millions from the American continent. Foreign citizens accounted for 6.2% of the total EU population of around 500 millions.

The figures were released today to mark the International Migrants Day which falls on 18 December, by Eurostat the EUs Statistical Office.

In 2008, the largest numbers of foreign citizens were recorded in Germany (7.3 million ), Spain (5.3 million), the United Kingdom (4.0 million), France (3.7 million) and Italy (3.4 million).