According to Serbian Economist, 34,155 foreign citizens arrived in Serbia for permanent or long-term residence in 2024, which is 17.2% less than the previous year, the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia reported.
According to Serbian statistics, Russian citizens once again constituted the largest group of immigrants—17,103 people, or 50.1% of the total number of foreign arrivals.
Citizens of China ranked second in terms of the number of arrivals—4,511 people, followed by citizens of India—2,109, and Turkey—1,951. Other notable groups of immigrants to Serbia included citizens of Sri Lanka—829 people, Nepal—780, Belarus—366, and Ukraine—365 people.
In addition, in 2024, citizens of Montenegro—299 people, Uzbekistan—289, Bosnia and Herzegovina—285, Bangladesh—277, Germany—258, and Romania—257 arrived in Serbia.
The Statistical Office also reported that the number of foreign citizens who left Serbia in 2024 was 17,331, which is 12.2% more than in 2023. The largest group among those who left was also made up of Russian citizens—5,421 people, or 31.3% of the total number of foreign emigrants.
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According to the publication Parametar, Croatia has become the most popular European Union country for Serbian citizens to relocate to, according to Eurostat data. In 2024, approximately 46,000 residence permits were issued to Serbian citizens in EU countries for the first time, of which about 14,500 were in Germany and about 10,000 in Croatia.
Croatia was followed by Austria and Slovenia, where Serbian citizens received approximately 4,000 initial permits each, as well as Slovakia, with about 2,500.
More broadly, from 2013 to 2024, 494,048 Serbian citizens moved to EU countries. The rate of emigration accelerated during this period: while approximately 0.33% of Serbia’s population moved to the EU in 2013, the figure rose to about 0.70% by 2024.
According to Eurostat, in 2024, EU countries issued a total of 3.5 million first-time residence permits to non-EU citizens, which is 8.3% less than the previous year. Against this backdrop, the Serbian migration flow remains particularly prominent in the labor migration segment, which explains the high figures for Croatia and Germany as markets with sustained demand for labor.
The Croatian destination stands out particularly not only because of its geographical proximity and the country’s EU membership, but also due to the relatively low language barrier. The Serbian and Croatian languages are almost completely mutually intelligible, and this is likely also one of the factors facilitating the relocation, job search, and daily adaptation of Serbian citizens in Croatia.
