On 1 January 2009, 31.9 million foreign citizens lived in the EU27 member states, of which 11.9 million were citizens of another EU27 member state. The remaining were citizens of countries outside the EU27, in particular from other European countries (7.2 million), Africa (4.9 million), Asia (4.0 million) and the American continent (3.3 million). Foreign citizens accounted for 6.4% of the total EU27 population.

The data comes from a report by Eurostat, the statistics office of the European Union, on foreign citizens in the EU27 member states, EFTA and Candidate countries: Foreigners in the EU are diverse and largely younger than the nationals of the EU member states.

The proportion of foreign citizens varied between less than 1% in Poland, Romania and Bulgaria and 44% in Luxembourg

In 2009, the largest numbers of foreign citizens were recorded in Germany (7.2 million persons), Spain (5.7 million), the United Kingdom (4.0 million in 2008), Italy (3.9 million) and France (3.7 million). More than 75% of the foreign citizens in the EU27 lived in these member states.

Among the EU27 member states, the highest percentage of foreign citizens in the population was observed in Luxembourg (44% of the total population), followed by Latvia3 (18%), Cyprus and Estonia3 (both 16%), Spain (12%), Ireland (11%) and Austria (10%). The percentage of foreign citizens was 1% or less in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia.

More than a third of foreign citizens in the EU27 came from another Member State

In 2009, 37% of the foreign citizens living in the EU27 were citizens of another EU27 Member State. The largest groups were from Romania (2.0 million or 6% of the total number of foreign citizens in the EU27), Poland (1.5 million or 5%), Italy (1.3 million or 4%) and Portugal (1.0 million or 3%). Among the citizens of countries outside the EU27, the largest groups were from Turkey (2.4 million or 8% of the total number of foreign citizens in the EU27), Morocco (1.8 million or 6%) and Albania (1.0 million or 3%).

Foreign citizens younger on average than nationals

On average in 2009, foreign citizens living in the EU27 were significantly younger than the population of nationals (median age4 34.3 years compared with 41.2 years). This was true in all member states except Estonia3, Latvia3 and Poland. The largest differences were recorded in Italy (32.3 compared with 43.9), Finland (33.0 compared with 42.1) and Denmark (32.1 compared with 41.0).

Amongst foreign citizens, those from countries outside the EU27 were younger than those from other EU27 member states (median age 33.0 years compared with 36.9 years).