EU Member States Approved a Record Number of Residence Permits in 2015, Here’s How It Is in Croatia

In 2015, a total of 2.6 million residence permits were granted in the European Union to citizens of third countries for the first time. This is a record number of permits issued since 2008, representing an increase of 12.1% compared to 2014. The increase is primarily due to a higher number of permits issued for employment purposes, which were 23.5% higher last year compared to 2014.

In Croatia, a total of 3,433 residence permits were issued, with the largest share being permits issued for family reasons (53.9%), followed by permits issued for employment purposes (23%), while the share of permits issued for education and other reasons each accounted for just over 11%. The largest share of permits was issued to citizens coming from neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina (25.2%) and Serbia (13%), while 7.3% came from the USA.

The most permits were issued in the United Kingdom and Poland, with the share for the United Kingdom accounting for 24.3% of all EU permits issued, and 20.8% for Poland. They are followed by France (8.7%), Germany (7.5%), Spain (7.4%), and Italy (6.9%).

The highest number of permits for employment purposes was issued in Poland (53% of the total number of permits granted in the EU), while the United Kingdom approved the most education-related applications (44%). Regarding family reasons, the highest number of such permits was issued in Germany (18%), Italy (15%), and Spain (14%). In fifteen member states, the largest number of approvals was due to family reasons, including Croatia with 53.9% of all permits issued.

Almost one-third of residence permits were issued to citizens of Ukraine (19.2%) and the USA (10%), followed by China, India, Syria, and Morocco, each with a share of less than 10%

Economic Activities

In 2015, industry was the largest economic activity within the EU in terms of total output produced. In the total gross added value of the European Union, industry, despite a declining trend, accounts for the largest share at 19.3%, followed by public administration, defense, education, health, and social care at 19.1%, and wholesale and retail trade, transportation, accommodation, and food services at 18.9%.

The contribution of these economic activities has changed over the last 20 years.

The percentage of gross added value increased in professional, scientific, and technical activities by 2.4 percentage points (pp). In terms of public administration, defense, education, health, and social activities, the percentage increased by 1.1 pp, and by 1 pp in real estate activities. In wholesale and retail trade, as well as transportation, accommodation, and food services, it remained almost stable at around 19%, while the share of industry decreased by 4 percentage points.

Similar trends can be observed for the shares of these economic activities in total employment. Almost half of the employed in the EU are concentrated in two economic activities: ‘wholesale and retail trade, transportation, accommodation, and food services’, and ‘public administration, defense, education, health, and social care’. In contrast, the share of employed in industry fell from 20.9% in 1995 to 15.4% in 2015.

The share of industry in total gross added value is highest in Ireland (39.1%), followed by the Czech Republic at 32.1% and Hungary at 27.8%, while in Croatia this share is just over 20%, placing us above the EU average. The gross added value of industry has decreased the most over the years in Malta by 11.7 pp, Latvia, and the United Kingdom (8.9 pp).

In the industrial sector at the EU level, the share of employed is only 15.4%, with the highest shares in the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovenia, each with over 22% of employed in industry.