Characteristics of EU citizens living in the UK

This briefing provides information on some key characteristics of the EU-born and EU citizen populations in the UK, focusing on England and Wales.

What are the main countries of birth for EU citizens living in the UK?

When we examine the characteristics of people who have moved from the EU to the UK, there is sometimes a choice between examining country of birth and passport held. Country of birth data are more widely available, although they exclude EU citizens who were born in the UK or outside the EU.

The impact of the choice of measure varies by country (Figure 1). Overall, 11% of all EU passport holders were born in the UK. These UK-born EU citizens primarily comprise children born in the UK to EU citizen parents, as well as adults living in Northern Ireland. Excluding the Irish, 84% of UK-born people with EU passports were under the age of 16. Among Irish citizens, the share of those under 16 is much lower (18%) due to Irish passport holders born and living in Northern Ireland across a range of age groups.

Another 15% of all EU passport holders in England and Wales were born in non-EU countries other than the UK. The highest share of EU nationals born in non-EU countries was found among Portuguese passport holders – 43%, with the top countries of birth including India (19%), Brazil (3%), and Angola (3%). High shares were also found among Spanish passport holders (32%; top countries of birth were Pakistan, Ecuador, and Colombia) and Italian passport holders (30%; top countries of birth included Brazil, Bangladesh, and Pakistan).

These data do not allow us to distinguish how many of these individuals were born outside the European Union to EU citizen parents and hence held citizenship at birth, as opposed to having migrated to an EU member state and acquired citizenship there before moving onwards to the UK.

Figure 1

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How many EU-born people are UK citizens?

EU-born UK passport holders include people who migrated from the EU to the UK and later acquired UK nationality, as well as people who were born to UK parents in EU countries and were already UK nationals at birth.

Overall, the EU-born have been less likely to become UK citizens than the non-EU-born. Only 17% of EU-born people held a UK passport in England and Wales in 2021, compared to 58% of people born in non-EU countries. The share varies widely between countries. For example, around 60% of German-born residents of England and Wales held a British passport, while the figure was much lower for people born in Poland (8%), Romania (6%), or Lithuania (3%).

Figure 2

Some EU-born residents in the UK are not yet eligible for UK citizenship because they have not lived in the UK long enough. Most people require six years of residence to qualify.

If we restrict the analysis to people who arrived in the UK before 2011, the share with UK passports is higher, at 29% of the EU-born (Figure 3). However, EU-born residents remain less likely to hold a British passport even after accounting for different lengths of stay. Non-EU migrants who have lived in the UK for at least a decade become even more likely to have acquired citizenship, with 80% of them holding a British passport in England and Wales in 2021.

Figure 3

It remains to be seen if naturalisation rates for EU-born residents will converge with non-EU ones in the coming years. Brexit and the subsequent limitations on EU citizens’ rights to the UK may have increased incentives to acquire British citizenship. Since 2016, the number of EU citizens acquiring UK citizenship has increased sharply – more than 60,000 were granted citizenship in 2024, compared to just 13,000 in 2015.

It is likely that more will apply for citizenship in the future, after engaging with the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS). A 2023 survey of EUSS status holders found that around 40% said they planned to apply for citizenship in the future, and another third were unsure whether they would apply.

Figure 4

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How well do EU-born residents speak English?

The large majority of EU-born residents in England and Wales — 91% — reported that they could speak English well or very well (or that English was their main language) at the time of the 2021 Census. Only 1% or 38,000 people said they could not speak English at all, and a further 8% (276,000 people) said that they did not speak English well (Figure 5).

Non-English speakers are more likely to be among the small share of people who did not respond to the England and Wales Census, although notably as many as 9% of the non-EU born reported not speaking English and were nonetheless included in the data collection. Among EU-born people who said they did not speak English well, the largest numbers were from Poland and Romania.

Figure 5

For a limited number of countries of birth, figures from the Scotland and Northern Ireland censuses are available online.

On average, English proficiency is higher among residents who have lived in England and Wales for longer periods. While 12% of EU-born residents who arrived since 2011 report not speaking English very well, the figure drops to 2-3% among those who arrived before 2000. That said, there are exceptions in some countries, which may reflect changes in the composition of migration over the past four decades (Figure 6). Limited figures for Scotland and Northern Ireland are available online.

Figure 6

ONS analysis on language proficiency from the England and Wales census found that the EU-born were more likely to live in a household where no adults had English (or Welsh, in Wales) as their main language (34% of the EU-born), compared to non-EU migrants (21%). However, most people in these households reported speaking English well or very well.

Many EU citizens living in the UK have foreign-language skills because their first language was not English. Full data about dual language skills is not collected, but the Census figures suggest that a majority of the EU-born are likely to be bilingual, i.e., fluent in both English and their native language. Additional UK-born children of EU citizens are likely to have grown up bilingual, but their numbers are difficult to assess.

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What levels of health do EU-origin residents report?

Compared to the UK and non-UK born, people born in EU countries were more likely to report that they were in good or very good health (88%), according to the Census of England and Wales in 2021 (Figure 7).

Figure 7

Health tends to decline with age, so differences across country-of-origin groups in large part reflect their age distribution (Figure 8). For example, people born in Ireland, Cyprus, and Malta have on average an older age profile and, thus, lower levels of health. However, there are also differences within age groups – in the 50-75 age group, for example, 81% of the Romanian-born reported good or very good health, compared to 71% of people born in Ireland.

Figure 8

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How likely are EU-origin residents to own their homes or use social housing?

The EU-born are much more likely to live in privately rented accommodation than either non-EU or UK-born residents (Figure 9). They are also less likely to live in social housing. In general, people who have been in the UK for longer (and who also thus tend to be older) tend to be more likely to own their homes and less likely to rent. This is reflected in figures on home ownership by individual country of birth. Groups of residents with higher homeownership rates are often those with older age profiles (e.g. Ireland, Germany and Croatia). There are some exceptions, however, such as France, whose residents have higher homeownership than the average for EU-born people despite a slightly younger age profile (Figure 8).

Figure 9

The most common living arrangement for EU-born residents over the age of 16 was to live in a couple, either married (36%) or cohabiting (21%). Some of the differences across countries of birth reflect the fact that older people are more likely to be married.

Figure 10

Around 46% of EU-born residents of England and Wales lived in households that included at least one dependent child in March 2021. This is broadly similar to the share of UK-born and lower than that of non-EU-born (Figure 11). The particularly low share of Irish-born people living in households with dependent children reflects their older age profile, with a higher share over the age of 50.

Figure 11

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How many EU-origin residents live in households that are experiencing material deprivation?

Several different measures of deprivation are used in the UK. The chart below shows the share of EU-born residents in England and Wales living in households that the Office for National Statistics classifies as ‘deprived’ along one of three main dimensions: housing, health and disability, or education.

A household is classified as deprived in the housing dimension if the household’s accommodation is either overcrowded, in a shared dwelling, or has no central heating. Overall levels of housing-related deprivation among the EU-born are much higher than for people born in the UK, with considerable variation between different countries of origin (Figure 12).

Deprivation in the health dimension refers to any person in the household having general health that is bad or very bad, or identifying as disabled. Health-related deprivation is considerably lower among EU-born residents than the rest of the population (Figure 12).

Households are classified as deprived in the education dimension if all members have qualifications below level 2 – roughly equivalent to GCSEs – and no one aged 16 to 18 years is a full-time student. Education deprivation levels among the EU-born are similar to other migrants and the EU-born on average, although this varies substantially by country of birth.

Across the types of deprivation, differences between countries of birth often reflect the age distribution of different groups. Younger people are more likely to experience housing-related deprivation, and older people are more likely to experience health-related deprivation.

Figure 12