The ministry of foreign and European affairs has published its activity report for 2024. It includes updated statistics on Luxembourg nationals living abroad, whose numbers continue to rise, and trends in visa applications.

In 2024, of the country’s 505,959 citizens, 146,308 lived outside the grand duchy. Over one year, this represents an increase of 6.5%. Compared with 2019, the increase is 79.46%.

Of these 146,308 emigrants, 23.35% live in France (i.e., 34,169 people); 19.9% in Belgium (i.e., 27,853 people) and 14.65% in Germany (i.e., 21,448 people). There is also a large community of Luxembourgers living in Brazil (29,665 people or 20.67% of emigrant citizens) and another in the United States (17,380 people or 11.87% of emigrant Luxembourgers).

7,471 new Luxembourg nationals in 2024

According to the ministry, 7,417 people acquired Luxembourg nationality through the naturalisation, option and recovery processes last year. This increase is reflected in the number of passports issued by the grand duchy. There were 60,214 in 2024, including 314 diplomatic passports and 287 service passports--these passports for nationals who are not entitled to a diplomatic passport, but who are carrying out missions or are posted abroad on behalf of the government. The total number of passports issued is fairly stable when compared with 2023 (61,981) but has almost doubled since 2014 (31,588).

Substantial increase in visa applications

In 2024, the ministry of foreign affairs faced a “substantial increase” in visa applications: 30,677 compared with 26,029 in 2023 (+17.8%). With 9,009 applications, applications for visas for family reasons are the most numerous. Applications for tourist visas are rising steadily, says the ministry (8,038 applications), followed by applications for business reasons (5,600 files).

Indians favour Luxembourg

New Delhi received the highest number of visa applications (4,058), followed by Ankara (3,299) and Beijing (1,951 applications). The strong demand from China can be attributed to the . Last year, the total number of arrivals was 5,447 and the number of departures was 5,305.

Indian citizens represent the largest group of third-country nationals visiting Luxembourg this year (5,495 people), ahead of Turkish citizens (3,373 people) and Chinese citizens (3,216 people). As a result of Brexit, applications processed from the London consulate are ever increasing: 544 were processed in 2022, 980 in 2023 and 1,148 in 2024.

This article was originally published in .