The Luxembourg Ministry of Justice released its annual statistics report on how many people have obtained Luxembourg citizenship. In 2020, 9,389 people obtained Luxembourg Citizenship through various procedures. This number includes the procedures for Reclaiming Luxembourg Citizenship (Article 89) and Citizenship by Option (Article 23). The following article breaks down the total numbers. Then, we analyze the total numbers and trends for American applicants.
Annual Statistics Released
A Decrease in Total Applicants
2020 was a year of social upheaval that touched the globe.
For a part of the year, Government administration offices in Luxembourg were closed. And for the remaining months open, they had a reduced capacity to receive non-employees on site. This also meant that application processing didn’t happen internally, either.
So, it is completely without surprise that the number of applicants for citizenship decreased. In 2020, 9,389 people acquired Luxembourg citizenship versus 11,451 people in 2019. This is a decrease of 2,062 people or -18% year on year. As a reminder, 2019 was the first year to already see a drop in the total number of applicants since the 2017 Nationality Law came into effect. Given that the processing offices were closed for nearly 25% of the year, this is less of a drop than could be expected otherwise.
Looking further, 47% of the total applicants or 4376 people reclaimed Luxembourg citizenship under Article 89, an increase of 3% from 44% in 2019. 6% more went through the Article 23 Citizenship by Option process, which is a decrease of -1% compared to 2019.
Applications by Country
Of the 9,389 applicants, the French were the largest group (2,264 – 24%). Then in second place is the Brazilians (1,799 – 19%). The Belgians came in third place (1,013 – 11%).
So where does that leave Americans? 438 Americans (5%) obtained Luxembourg citizenship in 2020. This puts Americans in 5th place in 2020, the same as 2019. Compared to 2019, this is a decrease of -40% in total American applicants (730 – 2019).
Want to learn more Luxembourg statistics? Over the next two weeks, we will be releasing our annual research on who are the American-Luxembourgers, these new dual citizens. You can check all of our research on the dual citizenship trends in 2020 in one place: https://www.luxcitizenship.com/luxembourg-dual-citizenship-trends-2020/.
To see our demographic report about the new American-Luxembourgish dual citizens, check out: https://www.luxcitizenship.com/american-luxembourgers/.
On April 27th, 2021, the Ministry of Justice confirmed to LuxCitizenship the total Americans who have started applying for citizenship but were unable to complete the procedure before the pandemic. Click here to learn more about the new insights.