By Andrea Hargraves 
One in 25 non-EU citizens acquires Portuguese citizenship annually.
Portugal is one of the European countries where residents outside the European Union find it easy to obtain citizenship. The study was conducted by the Canadian immigration agency, CanadaCIS, which analyzed the data between 2009 and 2021.
In total, Portugal ranked fourth in the rankings classification6.6% of non-EU residents obtained citizenship in the relevant period. This means that one in every 25 non-European citizens acquires Portuguese citizenship annually.
Sweden tops the list, with an approval rate of 9.3%, meaning that one in ten non-EU citizens obtains citizenship. It is also more than double the EU average, at 3.56%.
In Sweden, a foreign woman can obtain more citizenship than a foreign man.
In second place comes Norway with a rate of 7.4%, and the Netherlands comes in third place with a rate of 7.1%.
In a more detailed analysis, CanadaCIS shows that most Nordic countries cater more readily to non-EU citizens, giving the examples of Sweden (9.3%), Norway (7.4%), Iceland (6.5%) and Finland (5%). Of this region, only Denmark is not included.
In southern Europe, Portugal was the country that was distinguished by the ease of granting citizenship to citizens outside the European Union.
However, Northern and Western Europe were the regions where it was easiest to distribute citizenship, with an acceptance rate of 5.9%, which drops to 3.6% in Southern Europe and 1.9% in Central Europe.
Where is it most difficult?
Estonia is the most difficult country to obtain citizenship, with an acceptance rate of just 0.6%. “It has the lowest proportion of the population obtaining citizenship, about one in 200,” the report states.
“Men are also less likely to be accepted, at a rate of 0.58% compared to 0.69% for women.”
It is clear classification Central Europe is also the region where citizenship is difficult to obtain. Followed by Latvia (0.7%), the Czech Republic (0.73%) and Lithuania (0.8%).