According to Eurostat, the main driver in the rise was due to employment reasons (41%)--which increased 22% year-on-year--followed by reasons linked to family (27%), education (14%). 

Luxembourg witnessed the fifth highest rate of first permits issued in 2019 when compared to its population, with 14 permits per 1,000 population, after Malta (42), Cyprus (26), Poland (19) and Slovenia (15). The EU average in this stat was 7. Poland, however, issued 25% of total permits in the EU, a total of 724,000, to non-EU citizens, with employment being the main reason. 

One-third of resident permits were issued to citizens of Ukraine (757,000 permits in total), Morocco (133,000) and India (131,000). The main issuers of permits to those citizens were Poland, Spain and Germany, respectively.