Cyprus granted a total of 5,517 citizenships in 2017 of which 1315 went to Russians, 502 to Britons and 481 to Ukrainians, according to figures published by Eurostat on Tuesday.
Eurostat’s figures show that with the exception of a dip in the crisis year of 2013, there is a steady increase in the number of citizenships granted by Cyprus since 2012 from 2314 in 2012 to 5,517 in 2017.
It also shows a change in the top three recipient countries of Cypriot citizenship with Russia overtaking Greece in 2014 and remaining the biggest recipient since then.
In 2016 Cyprus granted a total of 4660 citizenships (Russia 1115, Greece 728, the UK 337) and in 2015 a total of 3322 (Russia 1138, UK 291 and Greece 266). In 2014 Cyprus granted 2277 citizenships (Russia 618, Greece 354 and Britain 344) and in 2013 Cyprus granted 1580 (Greece 367, UK 295 and Russia 221. In 2012, Cyprus granted 2314 citizenships (Greece 805, UK 395 and South Africa 186).
Eurostat said that overall, in 2017, 825,000 persons acquired a citizenship of a Member State in the EU.
The Member States where most people acquired citizenship in 2017 were Italy (18% of all acquired citizenships in the EU), the United Kingdom (15%), Germany and France (14% each), Sweden and Spain (8% each).
The main beneficiaries of an EU citizenship were people from Morocco (8%), Albania (7%), India and Turkey (4% each).
France, Spain and Italy (together 83%) were the main Member States where people from Morocco acquired citizenship, while for those from Albania it was in Greece and Italy (together 97%).
The United Kingdom (53%) was the main Member State where the population from India acquired citizenship, while for those from Turkey it was Germany (50 %).
Click on the visualisation below, to see to which citizens the EU Member States have granted citizenship, and vice versa:
Source: Eurostat – access to dataset
