More than a Quarter of the Immigrants in Bulgaria are from Russia

Bulgaria is among the countries of the European Union (EU) with the largest share of immigrants from third countries compared to the population and among those with the smallest share of people from EU countries. This shows data from the European Statistics Office Eurostat for 2015 on the occasion of the International Immigrants Day, which is celebrated on 18 December.

In total, in the year 2015, 25,223 people settled in Bulgaria. Of these, 51% are non-EU nationals. Russia has largest share (27%), followed by Syrians, Turks, Ukrainians and Britons. At the same time, our country is among the EU countries with the lowest share of immigrants from member states of the bloc with a share of 6%. Before us is only Lithuania with 4 per cent. Bulgaria remains among the countries with a larger number of emigrants compared to immigrants, Eurostat data show.

A total of 4.7 million people have migrated to one of the 28 EU Member States in 2015. This figure includes both immigration from non-EU countries and immigration flows between the countries of the Union. The term "immigrant" refers to a person who has entered a Member State in order to establish in its territory for a period longer than one year. Half (2.4 million) of all immigrants were non-EU nationals, with 1.4 million (30%) having a nationality from another EU Member State.

Some 900,000 people have returned to their native countries, the survey shows. Just under 1 per cent (about 19,000) were stateless immigrants. The share of migrants returning home to Romania and Lithuania is the largest - 85% and 83% of immigrants in both countries in 2015 respectively. Followed by Hungary 56%, Croatia 55%, Latvia 52%, Estonia 52% and Portugal by 50%. In addition, Bulgaria, Ireland, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Cyprus,...