Foreigners make up 4 per cent of population

A total of 15,000 foreigners were residing in Malta at the beginning of last year - excluding asylum seekers and illegal immigrants - making up almost four per cent of the total population.

The largest chunk, 8,000 persons, were EU citizens, according to new statistics issued by the EU yesterday. Malta's population is 410,000.

Eurostat's statistics show that British nationals formed the biggest foreign community in Malta in 2008, at just over 4,000. There were also 900 Indians, 800 citizens each from Bulgaria and Serbia and 700 Chinese, the majority also possessing a working permit.

Overall, the 27 member states were hosting 30.8 million foreigners which include 11.3 million citizens of EU member states. The largest foreign community in the EU is made up of Turks; almost 2.5 million are dispersed in various member states, followed by Moroccans, that amount to 1.7 million.

The largest numbers of foreign citizens were recorded in Germany (7.3 million), Spain (5.3 million), the UK (4 million), France (3.7 million) and Italy (3.4 million).

The highest percentage of foreign citizens in the population was found in Luxembourg (43 per cent), followed by Latvia (18 per cent), Estonia (17 per cent), Cyprus (16 per cent), Ireland (13 per cent), Spain (12 per cent) and Austria (10 per cent).

On the other hand, the percentage of foreign citizens was less than one per cent in Romania, Poland, Bulgaria and Slovakia, a confirmation that foreigners tend to prefer richer countries.