Australians were by far the largest national group acquiring Maltese nationality in 2011, the most recent year surveyed, according to a Eurostat study published this week.

Citizens from Down Under made up 46.9 per cent of the 1,100 total. They were followed by British nationals (10.3 per cent), Americans (6.5 per cent) and Canadians (4.7 per cent).

All four countries are home to significant numbers of people of Maltese heritage. Legally, people born and living overseas can claim citizenship if they have a Maltese parent born on the island.

In the EU as a whole, the largest national group that acquired citizenship of any member state was from Morocco (64,300 people, of whom 55 per cent acquired citizenship from France or Spain).

They were followed by Turks (48,900, including 58 per cent who acquired German citizenship), Ecuadorians (33,700, 95 per cent of whom acquired Spanish citizenship) and Indians (31,700, with 83 per cent acquiring British citizenship).

Romanians (26,000 people) formed the largest group of EU citizens acquiring citizenship of another EU member state followed by Poles (11,000), Italians (7,500) and Portuguese (6,900).

In total, 783,100 people acquired citizenship of an EU member state in 2011, down by four per cent compared with 2010.

This decline, which occurred after three consecutive years of increase, was mainly due to the drops recorded in four of the five largest countries in terms of granted citizenships: the UK (177,600 people, down by nine per cent compared with 2010), France (114,600, down by 20 per cent), Spain (114,600, down by seven per cent) and Italy (56,200, down by 15 per cent).

Only Germany (109,600, up five per cent) registered an increase.

The five countries together accounted for almost three quarters of all citizenships granted by EU states.

In 2011, Malta had the fourth highest rate of citizenships granted relative to the number of resident foreigners, with 5.3 per 100.