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696,000 obtained citizenship in EU in 2008
Tuesday, 20 July 2010 10:26 | 
Most citizenships in the EU27 acquired by Moroccans, Turks and Ecuadorians
In 2008, 696,000 people acquired citizenship in the European Union (EU) compared with 707,000 in 2007.
The new citizens in 2008 came mainly from Africa (29% of the total number of citizenships acquired), non-EU27 Europe (22%), Asia (19%) and North and South America (17%).
Citizens of one EU27 Member State who acquired citizenship in another Member State accounted for 8% of the total.
These data on the acquisition of citizenship of the EU27 Member States are taken from a report issued by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.
In 2008, the highest number of citizenships were granted by France (137,000 persons), the United Kingdom (129,000) and Germany (94,000), which together accounted for over 50% of all citizenships granted by the EU27 Member States.
The EU27 average was 23 citizenships granted per 1,000 resident foreigners.
When compared with the population of each Member State, the highest rates of citizenship granted were recorded in Sweden (3.3 citizenships granted per 1,000 inhabitants), Luxembourg (2.5), France, Portugal and the United Kingdom (all 2.1).
Ten Member States granted less than one citizenship per 1,000 inhabitants, with the lowest rate observed in Poland, followed by the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Slovakia. The EU27 average was 1.4 citizenships granted per 1 000 inhabitants.
In 2008, the largest groups that acquired citizenship of an EU27 Member State were citizens of Morocco (64,000 persons), Turkey (50,000), Ecuador (27,000), Algeria (23,000) and Iraq (20,000). France granted 45% of all the citizenships acquired in the EU27 by Moroccans, Germany 49% of those acquired by Turks, Spain 93% of those acquired by Ecuadorians, France 88% of those acquired by Algerians and the United Kingdom 44% of those acquired by Iraqis.
In some Member States, a large part of the citizenships was granted to citizens from only one country. The Member States with the highest concentrations were Romania (89% of the new citizens had been citizens of Moldova), Hungary (68% came from Romania), Greece (59% from Albania) and Bulgaria (51% from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia). In Latvia and Estonia, 96% and 92% respectively of the new citizens were recognised non-citizens.