by KG/EUROPA In 2012, 818 000 persons acquired citizenship of an EU28 Member State, up by 4% compared with 2011 and by 6% compared with 2009. In 2012, the highest naturalisation rates were registered in Hungary (12.8 citizenships granted per 100 resident foreigners), Sweden (7.8) and Poland (6.6), and the lowest in the Czech Republic and Slovakia (both 0.4), Estonia (0.6) and Austria (0.7). On average, 2.4 citizenships were granted per 100 resident foreigners in the EU28. As regards the characteristics of the new citizens in the EU28, the median age of persons granted citizenship in 2012 was 31.4 years (compared with 41.6 for the total EU28 population), with more than a third (35.3%) aged less than 25 years and more than half (58.4%) aged 25 to 54, while those aged 55 or over accounted for around 6%. For the whole EU28 population as of 1st January 2012, the shares were 27.3%, 42.2% and 30.4% respectively. These data come from a report issued by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union Highest number of citizenships granted per 1000 inhabitants in Luxembourg Three quarters of all persons that acquired an EU28 citizenship in 2012 became citizens of one of the following six Member States: the United Kingdom (193 900 persons, or 23.7% of all citizenships granted in the EU28 in 2012), Germany (114 600 or 14.0%), France (96 100 or 11.7%), Spain (94 100 or 11.5%), Italy (65 400 or 8.0%) and Sweden (50 200 or 6.1%). When compared with the total population of each Member State, the highest rates of citizenship granted were recorded in Luxembourg (8.7 citizenships granted per 1 000 inhabitants), Ireland (5.5) and Sweden (5.3). On average, 1.6 citizenships were granted per 1 000 inhabitants in the EU28. More than 85% of persons granted an EU citizenship in 2012 were non-EU citizens In eleven Member States, more than 9 persons out of every 10 that acquired citizenship in 2012 were citizens of a non-EU country: Estonia (99.7%), Latvia (99.1%), Lithuania (99.0%), Spain (98.5%), Bulgaria (96.9%), Portugal (96.6%), Greece (95.4%), the United Kingdom (94.5%), Ireland (94.3%), Italy (91.2%) and Denmark (90.8%). On the contrary, the majority of persons that were granted citizenship in 2012 were citizens of another EU28 Member State in Luxembourg (86.6%), Hungary (81.1%) and Cyprus (54.4%). At EU level, 86.5% (or 708 000 new citizens) of those granted citizenship were citizens of a non-EU country, and 11.3% (92 000) of another EU28 Member State. A quarter of new EU citizens were Moroccans, Turks, Indians, Ecuadorians or Iraqis In 2012, the largest groups acquiring citizenship of an EU28 Member State were citizens of Morocco (59 300 persons, of which 53% acquired citizenship of France or Italy), Turkey (53 800, 62% acquired German citizenship), India (36 900, 77% acquired British citizenship), Ecuador (28 900, 94% acquired Spanish citizenship) and Iraq (27 500, 61% acquired Swedish citizenship). Moroccans, Turks, Indians, Ecuadorians and Iraqis represented together 25% of the total number of persons that acquired EU citizenship in 2012. Romanians (25 200 persons) were the largest group of EU citizens acquiring citizenship of another EU Member State, followed by Poles (12 800) and Italians (7 900).
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