Romania is First in Migrants Among EU Countries
According to the European Parliament, nearly 3.1 million people in Romania, which constitutes 16.3% of the population, have moved permanently to other countries in the European Union. This, in simple terms, is approximately the population of a large city. Many Romanians who intend to return are already building houses in Romania, but are postponing this due to not seeing improvements in education, healthcare, and governance. Their decisions may change if they see positive changes in these areas.
At the same time, countries with the fewest migrants in the EU – Germany, France, Sweden, and Denmark – have only 1% of their citizens living in other EU countries. Eurostat experts consider this situation to be one of the reasons for the gap between Eastern and Western European countries in economic and social areas.
Romania ranks first in the EU for the number of migrants moving to other European countries for permanent residence, while the most developed EU countries only have a small percentage of their population who have moved permanently to other EU countries. Romania is also facing the issue of mass emigration and needs to address social and economic problems to retain its population and attract emigrants back to the country.