2.2 million Moroccans hold a residence permit in the EU: they remain the largest foreign community
Moroccans remain the most numerous foreign nationals holding a valid residence permit in the European Union. There were 2.2 million of them at the end of 2025, ahead of Turks and Ukrainians.
The new data were published this Friday, September 11, by Eurostat. In total, 27.8 million nationals of countries outside the European Union held a valid residence permit at the end of 2025.
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With 2.2 million holders, Moroccans accounted for approximately 8% of this total. They outnumbered Turkish nationals, who numbered 2 million, and Ukrainians, who held 1.7 million permits. Morocco had already ranked among the top three in Europe for first residence permits issued in 2024.
More than 200,000 first permits issued in one year
Morocco also ranked among the top three nationalities for new permits granted in 2025. Approximately 202,100 Moroccans received their first residence permit in a country of the Union, behind Ukrainians (335,100) and Indians (227,600).
The member states issued 3.9 million first residence permits in 2025, an increase of 10.1% in one year. Employment was the main reason, accounting for 1.3 million permits, ahead of family reasons (1.1 million), other reasons including international protection (900,000), and studies (600,000). This distribution concerns all nationalities and not only Moroccans.
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Eurostat specifies that these statistics exclude people benefiting from temporary protection granted because of the war in Ukraine. The 2.2 million recorded do not correspond either to all people of Moroccan origin living in Europe: they count only Moroccan citizens holding a valid residence permit in the European Union.