Malta’s foreign population at 4.5% of population

How many foreign citizens live in an EU Member State? And how many of them come from another EU Member State? How is the risk of poverty influenced by the level of education? Are there more females or more males among the student population in the EU?

Answers to these questions and many more can be found in the first edition of the European social statistics pocketbook¹, published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. The pocketbook presents a comprehensive summary of social statistics available at Eurostat and offers users an interesting and easy understandable overview. It includes seven chapters on population, health & safety, education & training, labour market, income & living conditions, social protection and crime & criminal justice.

They include such statistics as the population of foreign citizens in 2012, for which Malta ranks one of the lowest in the EU with 20,500 EU and non-EU nationals, at 4.5% of the population.

In 2012, 34.3 million foreign citizens lived in the EU27 Member States, accounting for 6.8% of the EU27 population. This foreign population included 13.6 million EU citizens living in another Member State, 2.7% of the EU27 population, and 20.7 million non EU citizens, 4.1% of the EU27 population.

In 2012, the largest numbers of foreign citizens were recorded in Germany (7.4 million persons or 9% of the total population), Spain (5.6 million or 12%), Italy and the United Kingdom (both 4.8 million or 8%) and France (3.9 million or 6%). In total, more than three quarters of foreign citizens in the EU27 lived in these five Member States.

Among the EU Member States, the highest proportion of foreign citizens in the population was observed in Luxembourg (44% of the total population), followed by Cyprus (20%), Latvia³ and Estonia³ (both 16%). The percentage of foreign citizens was less than 1% in Poland, Romania, Croatia, Bulgaria and Lithuania.

Luxembourg also recorded the highest proportion of foreign EU citizens (38% of the total population), followed by Cyprus (13%), Ireland (9%) and Belgium (7%).

Apart from Latvia (16%) and Estonia (15%) the highest proportion of non-EU citizens was registered in Greece, Spain, Cyprus and Austria (all 7%).

There were almost a quarter more female students than male students in tertiary education in the EU27 in 2011. This was the case in all Member States, except Greece and Cyprus where numbers were almost equal. Among the Member States, the highest female/male student ratios in tertiary education were found in Latvia (157 female students per 100 males), Slovenia (154), Poland (149), Estonia and Slovakia (both 148) and Sweden (145).

The higher the education level, the lower the risk of poverty

The level of education has a significant impact on the risk of poverty: in the EU27 in 2011, almost one quarter of the population aged 18 or over with a low education level⁵ was at risk of poverty⁶, compared with 14% of those with medium education and 7% with high education. In all Member States, the lowest risk of poverty was registered for persons with a high education level.

In 2011, the share of persons with a low education level who were at risk of poverty ranged from 12% in the Netherlands to 44% in Bulgaria, while for those with medium education it varied between 8% in Malta and the Czech Republic and 21% in Lithuania and for those with high education between 2% in Romania and Portugal and 10% in Spain.

The largest differences in the at risk of poverty rate between persons with low and high levels of education were recorded in Bulgaria (44% for those with low education and 4% for those with high education), Croatia (38% and 5%), Romania (35% and 2%) and Cyprus (29% and 4%), and the smallest in the Netherlands (12% and 6%) and Denmark (17% and 9%).