Cookie Settings
Show details Hide details
Essential
Functional
YouTube
Imprint | Datapolicy
Search
fes.de
  • Monitor Social
  • Justiție Socială / Social Justice

For the fourth year consecutive, Romania has recorded a positive migration balance

Romania’s migration profile is changing at an ever-increasing rate: for the fourth year running, the number of people settling in the country is higher than the number leaving.

Between 2022 and 2025, Romania recorded an increase of almost 280,000 residents due to immigration.

The latest figures published by the National Institute of Statistics confirm that Romania is no longer predominantly a country of emigration, but predominantly one of immigration: in 2024, for the fourth consecutive year, more people settled in Romania for a period longer than 12 months than those who emigrated. Net migration stood at 97,114 people in 2022, +66,065 people in 2023, +48,716 people in 2024, and +66,920 in 2025.

It should be noted that, when we speak of immigrants, we are not referring exclusively to foreign nationals. Thus, in 2024, the most recent data published by Eurostat showed that approximately two-thirds (184,700) of the 287,000 registered long-term immigrants were Romanian citizens returning to the country.

A significant proportion of immigrants (13 per cent) are Ukrainian citizens who arrived following the outbreak of war in their country. Large numbers of immigrants (though smaller than in the previous year) were also recorded from Nepal (15,000) and Sri Lanka (7,000).

Migration involves several stages. In the first stage, the migrant settles temporarily in a foreign country, whilst retaining their main residence in their country of origin. In standard statistics, if this stay exceeds 12 months, it is classified as long-term migration.

Permanent migration takes place several years after arrival in the destination country – usually after acquiring citizenship. According to data provided by the National Institute of Statistics (INS), in Romania, the majority of permanent immigrants in 2025 came from the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. A significant number of permanent immigrants come from countries which, in recent decades, have been destinations for the temporary emigration of Romanians: Germany, Canada, Italy, Spain, etc.; they are, in fact, the return of a portion of the emigration flows recorded after the Revolution.

***

Data source:

Data processing and text design: Mircea Kivu

Infographic: Pascalone Media SRL

The media may reproduce the text and infographic, provided the source is credited.

Discover the Infograph