EU Migration: citizens of EU countries living in other EU member states 2023

As of 2023, Romania was the EU country which had the greatest number of its citizens living in other member states of the EU, with 3.15 Romanian citizens living abroad. The south-eastern European country has seen mass emigration since it joined the EU in 2007, as its citizens have migrated to wealthier member states to live and work. Poland, which has had a similar experience with its citizens emigrating since joining the EU in 2004, is the country with the third highest number of citizens living in other EU countries, wtih almost 1.5 million. Other countries with large number of citizens living abroad include Italy, with almost 1.5 million, and Portugal, with over 980,000. 

While the two largest member states in the EU in terms of population, Germany and France, have 774,016 and 623,180 of their citizens living elsewhere in the EU respectively, these figures pale in comparison on a per capita level with countries such as Bulgaria and Croatia. Bulgaria, which joined the EU along with Romania in 2007, has 836,065 of its citizens living abroad, which is remarkable considering the country has a population of roughly seven million people. Croatia, the most recent member state to join the EU, has 563,773 of its citizens abroad, with a population at home of less than four million people.