Approximately 5.1 million Romanians live in European countries, mostly in the United Kingdom, followed by Spain and Italy, according to official data from the Ministry of Labor analyzed by G4media.ro.
The Romanian community is the largest among the communities of European citizens living in the United Kingdom.
United Kingdom
Currently, 1.02 million Romanians have legal residence in the United Kingdom, of whom 684,380 have obtained permanent status. Approximately 100,000 Romanians have obtained British citizenship, according to documents seen by G4media.ro.
Between April 1, 2025, and March 31, 2026, around 39,000 Romanians returned to the country, with Romania ranking first in Europe in terms of the number of people leaving the United Kingdom.
At the end of June 2026, 1.47 million applications from Romanian citizens had been submitted under the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS), the scheme through which the United Kingdom granted the right of residence to EU citizens who lived in the UK before Brexit.
Germany
As of December 31, 2025, there were 903,770 Romanian citizens registered in Germany (6.4% of Germany’s foreign population), according to Germany’s Central Register of Foreigners. Of the Romanians living in Germany, 510,600 are men (6.9%), and 393,170 are women (5.9%).
Romanians have the highest employment rate among EU citizens in Germany (72.7%), even exceeding the rate for German citizens (71%). In November 2025, 558,950 Romanians were employed (522,910 with social security contributions and 89,740 in self-employment or marginal activities).
Spain
As of January 1, 2025, 609,270 Romanian residents were registered in Spain, according to the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE), and 1.1 million Romanians held a valid residence certificate. The Romanian community in Spain is the second largest, after the Moroccan community.
Almost 55,000 Romanians work in Spain as self-employed workers (autónomos). At the end of April 2026, 346,290 Romanian citizens were registered as contributors to the Spanish social security system.
According to data from the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE), of the total 609,270 Romanian residents, almost 129,000 people are young – 21.16% of the community.
Italy
The number of Romanian residents registered in Italy in 2025 was slightly over 1 million, of whom 592,684 were women and 460,358 were men.
In 2024, 598,765 Romanian workers paid employment taxes (545,433 employees, 44,970 self-employed and 8,362 project-based workers), while 53,432 were owners of individual businesses.
Most Romanians in Italy work in the services sector – 15% in services provided to families/at home, 7% in hotels and restaurants (HORECA), 5.5% in commerce, 16.5% in construction and 6.1% in agriculture. No less than 42,510 Romanians were already retired in Italy. In the 2023/2024 school year, 147,926 Romanian students were enrolled in schools in Italy.
France
The Romanian community in France was estimated at 450,000–500,000 citizens. There are no official statistics based on ethnicity in France, as national minorities are not recognized. The data presented by the Ministry of Labor is based on estimates by the Romanian diplomatic mission in Albion.
Other states
Sizable Romanian communities were also in Austria (155,721), the Netherlands (63,848 official residents), Cyprus (45,000), Greece (28,250), Sweden (25,300-30,000), Denmark (17,000-20,000), and Estonia (1,000-1,500).
The National Institute of Statistics announced the main demographic statistics for Romania in August, with data valid as of January 1, 2026. Romania’s resident population was 19.041 million people, down by 1,829 people compared with January 1, 2025, mainly due to deaths, according to INS.
The number of immigrants exceeded the number of emigrants in 2025 by 102,200 people. The international migration balance, which increased compared with previous years, failed, however, to offset the negative natural increase.
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