About 1% of the Population in Bulgaria are Citizens of non-EU Countries

As of January 1, 2018, around 71,000 citizens from non-EU countries resided in Bulgaria, accounting for about 1 percent of the Bulgarian population of 7,050,000 at that date. This shows data from a Eurostat analysis of migration processes in the countries of the Community as of 1 January 2018.

At the same time, some 13,000 citizens from EU-28 countries resided in the country, which accounts for only 0.2 per cent of the Bulgarian population. There are also 1 870 foreigners who have stayed without a nationality in Bulgaria, shows European statistics.

According to the analysis in the top 5 of the countries that had the largest number of residents residing here - the largest group was Russia - about 22 thousand people. The following groups are represented by Turkey and Syria - about 12,800 people, Ukraine - about 6,000 people and other countries.

At the same time, Bulgaria has been among the countries in the community with relatively low migratory pressures over the past one or two years - in 2018 a total of 2,536 people have sought protection, with only 317 being granted refugee status, and 1 362 people did not get such status.

For the first month of this year, only 147 sought protection, 26 of whom were granted refugee status.

A total of 4.4 million people emigrated to one of the EU-28 Member States in 2017, according to Eurostat data. Of these 4.4 million migrants in 2017, there were approximately 2.1 million non-EU nationals. Another 2.3 million citizens with EU citizenship have internally migrated to one of the countries in the community.

Germany reports the largest number of emigrants in 2017 - 560 thousand, followed by Spain - 369 thousand, Great Britain - 359 thousand and France - 312 thousand.

In absolute terms...