Number of Luxembourg citizens living abroad rises sharply

The number of Luxembourg citizens who live abroad rose sharply last year, partially fuelled by Brazilians and Americans acquiring citizenship, statistics agency Statec has said.

At the beginning of this year, just over 137,000 people with Luxembourg citizenship lived outside the Grand Duchy, according to Statec data released on Sunday. This represents an increase of roughly 15,000 people compared with January 2023.

At the same time, the population living in the Grand Duchy stood at 672,050 on 1 January – including the country’s roughly 47% foreign population. The one-year rise of 11,241 residents was one of the lowest in over a decade, apart from the pandemic years.

Over the border and over the ocean

Since 2020, the proportion of Luxembourgers living abroad has accelerated from just over 81,000 in 2020 to over 137,000 in 2024 – an increase of 68.5%, according to Statec.

Neighbouring countries top the destination list as they are considered attractive due to their lower property prices, combined with easy proximity. With its 32,925 resident Luxembourgers, France comes out on top. Belgium, meanwhile, has 27,212 Luxembourgers and Germany 20,466. Between them, the three neighbouring countries account for 59% of all expat Luxembourgers.

Despite this, Belgium is not second on the list behind France. That accolade is held several thousand kilometres away – in South America. Brazil has 27,632 resident Luxembourgish citizens. Further north, the United States is home to 14,972 Luxembourgers.

“On the one hand, more and more Luxembourg nationals are leaving Luxembourg and moving to the three neighbouring countries,” the Statec report said.

“[On the other hand] the number of Luxembourgers living in Brazil has increased by a factor of 4.3 over the last five years, while the number living in the United States has increased by a factor of almost three. This increase is due to the large number of acquisitions of Luxembourg nationality by persons residing in Brazil and the United States who took advantage of the recovery procedure […].”

The recovery procedure allows a person with a Luxembourgish ancestor born after 1900 to claim Luxembourgish nationality themselves. This explains how people who have never resided in Luxembourg are included in the statistics.

An international bunch

“The data is extracted from the National Register of Natural Persons (RNPP) and indicates the number of Luxembourg nationals living abroad. This data only includes countries with at least ten Luxembourg residents. Moreover, the number is only indicative as there may be cases of deaths, births or people moving to another country without the RNPP being informed,” the report said.

(This article first appeared in Virgule. Translation, editing, additional reporting by Alex Stevensson.)