CAPITALS — There has been a surge in UK citizens acquiring the nationality of another EU country since the Brexit referendum, according to data obtained by the BBC.
In 2017 a total of 12,994 UK citizens obtained the nationality of one of the 17 member states from which the BBC has received figures.
This compares with 5,025 in 2016 and only 1,800 in 2015.
The most frequent new nationality was German, which saw a huge jump from just 594 cases in 2015 up to 7,493 in 2017.
The rise is presumed to be the result of Britons who can meet the criteria seeking to keep their legal rights attached to European Union membership. The 2017 figure is about seven times the 2015 level,
The dramatic increase is consistent across many countries. France was the second most popular nationality, jumping from 320 instances in 2015 to 1,518 last year, and then Belgium, where the increase was from 127 to 1,381.
The number for Ireland rose from 54 in 2015 to 529 in 2017. However, this does not include new Irish passport applications from the much larger number of people who already had entitlement to Irish citizenship, due for example to being born in Northern Ireland.
(BBC)
