Citizens, mainly from India, Russia, Nepal, Syria and the Philippines, were first granted a residence permit by the Republic of Cyprus in 2020, according to data released by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.
Cyprus, according to the same data, granted in 2020 the first residence permit to a total of 16 thousand 910 people, out of the total 2.2 million first residence permits issued in the same year throughout the European Union.
Specifically for Cyprus, in 2020 3 thousand 41 residence permits were granted to Indians, 2 thousand 303 to Russians, 2 thousand 29 to Nepalese, 1560 to Syrians and 1321 to Filipinos.
In total, the top five countries whose citizens have been granted most of the first residence permits in Cyprus in 2020 represent 61% of the total residence permits issued in the country during the same period (10 thousand 254 out of 16 thousand 910).
Other countries to which Cyprus granted first residence permits in 2020 include Sri Lanka (1149), Egypt (856), Ukraine (614), Vietnam (555), Bangladesh (487) and Israel. (364), Pakistan (303), Lebanon (241), USA (186), Nigeria (168), Moldova (155), China including Hong Kong (128), Belarus (126), Iran (126), Georgia (102) and Palestine (98).
Most residence permits for citizens of non-EU countries were issued in 2020 by Poland (598 thousand or 26%), followed by Germany (313 thousand, 14%) and Spain (312 thousand, 14%).
The largest group of third-country nationals who received their first residence permit in EU countries were Ukrainians, whose number rose to 601,200 in 2020. 81% of these permits (488,900) were granted by Poland.
The other two nationalities with the most residence permits were Moroccans (123 thousand 400 people, 56% of whom were given by Spain) and Indians (79 thousand 270, 14% of whom were given in Germany).
A total of 36% of the first distribution licenses granted to EU Member States in 2020 came from Ukraine, Morocco and India.
Eurostat presented the data in an interactive whiteboard which is available on its website (https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/wdn-20211102-1).
Source: KYPE
