Want to move to Europe? These are the EU countries welcoming the most - and least - new citizens

EU countries granted a record number of citizenships in 2021, new figures show.

A total of 827,300 people obtained citizenship in EU member states in 2021 - an increase of 98,300 on 2020.

The 14 per cent leap can be partly attributed to a pandemic-era backlog, but also reflects an upward trend on 2019, when 706,400 new citizenships were granted.

85 per cent of new citizens were not previously citizens of another EU country.

Spain granted the highest number of new citizenships in 2021, welcoming 144,800 new residents.

The country was closely followed by France and Germany (130,000 new citizens each), Italy (121,500) and Sweden (89,400).

Becoming a citizen can be a long and arduous process - but it’s not equally difficult across the bloc.

If you’re wealthy, several countries offer citizenship by investment schemes. People who purchase a property in Greece worth more than €500,000 can apply for citizenship seven years later - as long as they have lived there during that time and paid taxes. In Malta, you can get citizenship through investment in just 18 months, provided you can cough up €700,000 for real estate.

Most people become citizens through the more conventional route of naturalisation - living and working in the country for several years.

In 2021, Sweden granted 10 citizenships per 100 resident non-nationals - the highest naturalisation rate in the bloc. Sweden was followed by the Netherlands (5.4 citizenships per 100 resident non-nationals), Romania (4.6), Portugal (3.7) and Belgium and Spain (both 2.7).

In some parts of Europe, getting citizenship is uncommon, even for people who have lived there for years.

Lithuania granted just 0.2 citizenships per 100 resident non-nationals, followed by Latvia (0.3), Estonia (0.5), and