Belgium granted citizenship to more than 37,000 people in 2017

In 2017, some 825,000 people acquired the nationality of a Member State of the European Union, a figure down from the year 2016 (995,000), and 2015 (841,000), according to data provided by Eurostat.

In the case of Belgium, this figure is 37,399, up 17% compared to 2016.

Moroccans (67,900 people), Albanians (58,900 people) and Indians (31,600 people) were the main beneficiaries of citizenship being granted within the EU countries.

For Belgium, the main recipients were Moroccans (13.6%), Romanians (5.4%) and Poles (4.0%).

Moroccans, Albanians, Indians, Turks, Romanians, Pakistanis, Poles and Brazilians accounted for about one third (34%) of the total number of people who acquired the nationality of a EU Member State in 2017.

Romanians (25,000 people), Poles (22,000) and the British (15,000) were the three largest groups of EU citizens who obtained the nationality of another EU Member State.