Work permits in the EU, 2025: which countries issue the most, in total and per resident

In 2025, the 27 EU countries issued 1,295,687 first residence permits for employment reasons to people from outside the EU. That is 33.6% of all first permits issued in the year, making work the most common reason, according to the Eurostat news release of 11 September 2026. Compared with 2024, work permits rose by 16.1%.

The figures below come from the Eurostat dataset on first permits by reason, with 2025 as the latest year for all 27 countries. Eurostat counts a residence permit as any authorisation valid for at least three months that lets a non-EU citizen stay legally in the country. A permit is "first" when it is issued to the person for the first time, or when at least six months have passed since an earlier permit for the same reason expired.

One point matters before reading the table: these are permits issued, not applications. The data says how many people received a work permit, not how many applied, so it does not tell you the chance of approval in any country.

How the per-resident figure is calculated

Eurostat publishes the permits as a number of people. To compare countries of very different sizes, we divided each country's 2025 work permits by its population on 1 January 2025, also from Eurostat, and multiplied by 1,000. For the EU as a whole, 1,295,687 permits for 451,284,558 residents gives 2.9 work permits per 1,000 residents.

The table

Ordered by the number of first permits issued for work in 2025.

Where the most work permits go

Poland issued 318,186 first permits for work in 2025, 24.6% of the EU total. Portugal came second with 240,523, then Spain with 115,040 and Germany with 108,091. Together, these four countries issued 781,840 work permits, or 60.3% of the EU total.

Eurostat's Statistics Explained article on first permits adds that, of the work permits issued to citizens of Ukraine in 2025, 86.3% were issued by Poland; for citizens of Brazil, 90.3% were issued by Portugal.

At the other end, Estonia issued 1,098 work permits, Luxembourg 1,931 and Latvia 4,151.

How the ranking changes per resident

Divided by population, the order looks very different. Malta issued 28.4 work permits per 1,000 residents, the highest rate in the EU, even though it ranks 15th by number. Cyprus follows with 25.6 and Portugal with 21.1. Lithuania (14.5) and Croatia (12.2) complete the top five.

Poland falls from first to sixth, with 8.7 per 1,000 residents. Germany, fourth by number, is 19th per resident with 1.3. Spain moves from third to 14th with 2.3.

The lowest rates were in Belgium (0.6 per 1,000 residents), France (0.7), Austria and Estonia (0.8 each) and Italy (1.0).

For someone looking for work abroad, the two views answer different questions. The number shows where the largest flows of non-EU workers go. The rate per resident shows how large that flow is compared with the country, which says more about how common foreign hires are in the local labour market.

Notes on the data

• Portugal. Eurostat marks Portugal's 2025 figure for work permits with a break in series, so it is not directly comparable with earlier years.
• Ireland. Eurostat flags Ireland's figures as having low reliability.
• Population. The population on 1 January 2025 is provisional for France and estimated for Romania; the EU total is estimated and provisional.

What the figures do not show

• Your odds. A high number of permits does not mean an application is more likely to succeed.
• Which jobs. The dataset groups all employment reasons together, from highly skilled jobs to seasonal work.
• Length of stay. The total covers permits valid from three months to 12 months or more.

For what each country asks of job seekers, see our guide to job seeker visas, and for the jobs in demand, where countries recruit abroad.

Country profiles: Poland, Portugal, Spain, Germany, Lithuania and Croatia.