Malta issued 10,974 residence permits for non-eu citizens in 2017, according to the latest publication of Eurostat. This represents 0.35% of the total 3.1 million residence permits residence permits of the EU member states in 2017.
Malta issued 54.6% of residence permits (5,977) for employment activities. These residence permits to foreigners (non-EU) represent 2.3% of the population of Malta in 2017 which was 460,297
Across the EU Member States in 2017, the highest ratios of first residence permits to population were recorded in
- Malta (23.4 permits issued per 1 000 population),
- Cyprus (22.1),
- Poland (18.0),
- Sweden (12.9),
- Luxembourg (12.1) and
- Ireland (10.0)
Residence permits by country
- Serbia 18.5%
- Philippines 10.8%
- India 7.1%
- Macedonia 5.1%
- Libya 4.8%
Germany, Poland and United Kingdom issued over half a million residence permits (first time) to foreigners in 2017 alone
- Germany 535K (51% other reasons)
- Poland 683K (87% for employment)
- United Kingdom 517K (34% for education)
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