Foreign-Born Population in the EU Is Rising

Key Takeaways

• Foreign-born populations are rising across most of the EU. By 2025, 46.7 million people (10.4%) in the EU were born abroad.
• In 2025, large countries like Germany (17.2 mil.), France (9.6m), Spain (9.5 mil.) had the highest increase of foreign-born population in terms of absolute numbers.
• Luxembourg (51.5%) and Malta (32.0%) have the highest share of foreign-born residents, which is amplified by their small populations.
• Migration in the EU is shaped by a mix of economic, demographic, and policy factors. Ageing populations and labour-market demand are among the key drivers, creating gaps that are increasingly filled by people born abroad.
• Greece (11.8% → 11.0%) and Latvia (15.0% → 11.6%) are the only EU countries that faced a decline in foreign-born residents.

EU Countries’ Foreign-Born Population Over Time

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Migration in the European Union is shaped by a mix of economic, demographic, and policy factors. These include labour demand, education, and family reunification. 

At the same time, EU policy has increasingly encouraged legal migration to help address labour shortages and support economic growth, contributing to a gradual rise in the foreign-born population.

On January 1, 2025, 46.7 million people living in the EU or 10.4% of its total population, were born in foreign countries.

Recent population trends have been moving in this direction for various reasons, which include:

•  continued immigration from outside the EU
• mobility within the EU
• slower growth of the native-born population

Together, these factors have steadily increased the share of residents over time.

Two countries hold the highest shares of foreign-born residents in their total population.:

• Malta: 7.4% → 32.0% (+24.6 pp)
• Luxembourg: 32.2% → 51.5% (+19.3 pp)

In Luxembourg, the labour market is deeply integrated with neighbouring countries through extensive cross-border commuting. Its foreign-born residents were already close to half the population in 2020 and became a majority later on, making migration a structural feature of the economy and society.

In Malta, the shift is closely linked to Maltese workers moving into office-based jobs, leaving strong labor demand in tourism and other service-oriented sectors, which is increasingly filled by foreign workers.

In both cases, the countries’ sizes also matter. As small countries, even moderate increases in people moving in can lead to large changes in percentages.

In larger countries, percentage increases are less extreme—but the number of foreign-born residents is much higher in absolute terms.

For example:

• Germany: 9.5 mil. → 17.2 mil. (11.6% → 20.5%)
• Spain: 6.2 mil. → 9.5 mil. (13.5% → 19.3%)
• France: 7.2 mil. → 9.5 mil. (11.3% → 14.0%)

These figures are far above those of smaller countries such as Luxembourg (351,000+ foreign-born residents in 2025), even though it has a much higher share of foreign-born residents (51.5%).

In these larger economies, migration appears closely linked to ageing populations and labour-market needs. In Germany, an ageing society is already contributing to labour shortages in several occupations. Meanwhile, in France and Spain, foreign workers are increasingly used to fill gaps in sectors facing recruitment difficulties and labour scarcity.

What is the median age in each EU country? ->

There are also a few countries that move in the opposite direction:

• Greece: 11.8% → 11.0%
• Latvia: 15.0% → 11.6%

In Latvia, long-term demographic pressures (E.g., sustained emigration, low fertility, aging population) appear to outweigh gains in the foreign-born population.

In Greece, the decline likely reflects the impact of economic shocks, particularly following the European debt crisis, alongside changes in migration patterns.

Across the EU, the foreign-born population has increased overall, but at very different speeds. This uneven pattern reflects how migration interacts with each country’s labour market, demographics, and population size.