Russians account for one third of new Maltese citizens: official stats

VALLETTA, April 9 (Xinhua) -- One in every three citizens who became Maltese during 2016 are Russians, according to Eurostat data.

Data also revealed that 28 percent of all Saudi Arabians who had been granted European citizenship did so by becoming naturalized Maltese citizens.

The number of Saudi Arabian nationals who acquired EU citizenship increased by 108 percent over the previous year, the data shows.

Moreover, it emerged that almost one million people were granted citizenship by an EU member state in 2016, with 875,000 coming from third countries.

The number of foreign nationals who acquired Maltese citizenship increased from 646 to 1,495, between 2015 and 2016, making it the third highest increase across the bloc.

While the increase is due to the Malta individual investor program, which allows individuals to purchase Maltese citizenship, the number also includes individuals granted citizenship through naturalization.

The largest groups of new citizens in all EU member states came from Morocco, Albania and India.

The largest groups who became Maltese citizens in 2016 hailed from Russia (33 percent), Britain (8 percent) and Saudi Arabia (5 percent). Russians constituted the largest group of new citizens in Malta, Cyprus, Lithuania and Bulgaria. Enditem