The naturalisation rate is the ratio of the number of people who acquired citizenship of a country during a year to the stock of foreign residents in the same country at the beginning of the year. In 2020, the highest naturalisation rate was registered in Sweden (8.6 citizenships granted per 100 resident non-nationals).

The rate recorded in Portugal was thus above the EU average, which was 2%. At the opposite end of the table are countries such as Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, the latter of which recorded a naturalisation rate of only 0.2% in 2020.

Increase in citizens granted

Eurostat data also show that Portugal recorded one of the largest increases in the number of citizenships granted. In 2020, 729,000 people acquired the nationality of an EU Member State where they resided, an increase of 3% compared to 2019, which “is mainly due to the increases observed in Spain (+27,300 Spanish citizenships granted than in 2019), followed by the Netherlands (+21,800), Sweden (+16,000) and Portugal (+11,000)”.

On the other hand, the biggest reductions in absolute terms occurred in France (-23,300 French citizenships granted compared to 2019), Germany (-20,800) and Belgium (-6,700).