Where in Europe gives the most residency permits to Americans, Brits and Indians?

European countries issued some 3.57 million first residence permits in 2024, according to new statistics from Eurostat.

The data refers to new permit authorisations issued by national authorities to non-EU citizens that allows them to stay in the country for employment, family, education or other reasons, so they can be interpreted as how many third-country people moved to live in a certain country.

The data, however, also include permits issued because of a change to a previous residence status or reissued after a gap of at least six months.

As British, US, Canadian, Australian and Indian citizens are among our most common readers, we have looked into the data about which states in Europe the tens of thousands of citizens from these countries made their homes in 2024. We also included data on those who moved from South Africa and New Zealand in 2024.

For British and Australian citizens, the most common reason to obtain a residence permit was employment (30 and 29 percent, respectively), while for US and Canadian citizens, it was education (38 and 37 percent).

UK citizens

The latest Eurostat data show that some 43,600 British citizens obtained a first residence permit in the EU in 2024. That reflects a similar figure to the number of Brits who have moved in the three previous years, although it's far fewer than the 90,000 who were given first residency permits in 2021 in the aftermath of Brexit.

Spain was the country that issued the largest number of new permits to British citizens (12,653), a significant increase from 10,166 in 2023. France (8,073), Germany (3,753), and the Netherlands (3,445) followed. For Germany, the number dropped from 5,309 in 2023.

The top following countries were Switzerland (3,068), Portugal (2,587), Denmark (1,864), Sweden (1,726), Italy (1,460), Norway (1,270), Cyprus (936), Belgium (928), Bulgaria (842), Poland (729), Greece (671) and Finland (573). Additionally, 532 Britons were granted first-time residence permits in Austria last year.

US citizens

Just over 80,300 US citizens were issued a first residence permit in EU countries in 2024, surpassing pre-pandemic levels. The largest number was granted in Spain (15,638), France (13,062), Germany (8,507), the Netherlands (6,732), and Denmark (5,183). They were followed by Italy (5,049), Ireland (4,773) and Portugal (4,345).

In Denmark and Switzerland (4,339), US citizens were the top nationality to be issued a first residence permit. US citizens were also in the top 5 in France, Estonia, Ireland, Luxembourg, Iceland and the Netherlands.

Additionally, 1,083 US citizens moved to Norway, 2,746 to Sweden and 1,250 to Austria.

Canadian citizens

Some 15,400 Canadian citizens obtained a residence permit for the first time in an EU country, with France by far the most popular destination, followed by Spain and the Netherlands.

The 1,883 first residence permits issued to Canadians by Spain were almost double the number compared to pre-pandemic levels, and a significant increase was also recorded for France, where 3,461 Canadians received first-time residency permits.

Elsewhere, Germany welcomed 1,560 Canadians, Switzerland 1,227, Denmark 1,008, Italy 409, Sweden 832, Norway 361 and Austria 235.

Australian citizens

Last year, some 9,400 Australians obtained a residence permit for the first time in the EU, with the Netherlands, France and Germany issuing the most. The number of Australians given permits by France was 1,235, whilst Germany handed out slightly fewer - 1,164.

The number of Australian citizens who obtained a residence permit in Sweden for the first time (681) was lower than before the pandemic.

Indian nationals

In total, 192,445 Indian citizens obtained first-time residency permits across the 27 European Union nations in 2024.

The country that welcomed the most Indians was Germany, with 33,813 first-time permits given out. Italy gave almost 20,000 residency permits (19,960) to Indian nationals whilst France welcomed 10,804.

In 2024, 2,701 New Zealanders were granted first-time permits across the 27 EU countries, with several hundred relocating to France (287) and Spain (356). Over 600 moved to the Netherlands and there were just over 100 Kiwis who received permits in Sweden (132) and Switzerland (145), whilst 188 were successful in Denmark.

Around 10,600 South Africans moved to Europe in 2024 on first-time permits, with the highest number going to the Netherlands (3,729). Around 500 moved to France and a similar number to Spain, whilst just over 300 were given permits in Sweden.

Just over 32,000 Nigerian nationals were given residency permits in EU countries in 2024 with Italy (9, 321) and Germany (6,205) handing by far the most. Spain and France handed out around 2,500 residency permits to Nigerian citizens.