MIGR06: Foreign-born with two foreign-born parents by reporting country, country background, time, sex and length of stay

Please note that refugees/asylum seekers are not automatically registered as residents in the Nordic countries, and are therefore not fully included in the statistics of this matrix. This means that for example immigrants from Ukraine are underestimated in the present matrix, since they have not been in a Nordic country long enough or otherwise do not meet the rules for population registration. See the respective country's regulations for further information. Definition of Country Background:
Foreign-born with two foreign-born parents: their own country of birth.
Descendants: mother's country of birth, or father's country of birth if mother's is unknown.
Rest of the population: Reporting country i.e. one or both parents' country of birth is the reporting country. The list of countries reported under Country Background was expanded in the 2024 update. For the first three years in the matrix, a total of 20 countries were used. They were the largest non-Nordic countries of birth in each Nordic country and at a Nordic level in 2020/2021. For each Nordic country, the countries were ranked from largest to smallest in terms of population size. The countries were then given a sum-rank for the Nordic region, and then ranked again at a Nordic level. In addition, for the purpose of comparison, the chosen countries had to be ranked among the 25 highest in at least 3 of the 5 Nordic countries. The result was 20 countries for foreign-born with two foreign-born parents, and 9 countries for descendants. For the last three years in the matrix, a complete list of countries, following the ISO 3166-2 standard, has been used. A person can have a background in a country that does not exist anymore, for example Former Soviet Union. For Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Sweden they are still registered as having their background in that country, while Norway have registrered these under a today existing country (so that people with a background in Former Soviet Union are registered under Russian Federation etc.). Definition of lenth of stay: Time since first date of registred residency. In some cases, subsets do not add up to specified totals. This is because summation in these cases took place after small values were suppressed for confidentiality reasons. The differences are, however, small in relation to the values. This matrix is the result of an integration and migration co-operation project involving the Nordic Statistical Institutes.

reporting country

Denmark

Population as of December 31st previous year.

Denmark

Resident: A registered resident with a national identity number who has stayed or intends to stay in the country for more than 3-6 months.

Denmark

On Country background:
Residents born in Greenland or the Faroe Islands figure with Denmark as country background.
Residents born in overseas territories figure with the sovereign state as country background (e.g. Gibraltar and Falkland Islands are contained in United Kingdom, French Polynesia and New Caledonia are contained in France, Aruba and Curaçao are contrained in The Netherlands etc.).
Dissolved contries might occur, e.g. Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, since some persons are still registered with these countries as their country of birth, if they immigrated when these countries still existed.
Palestine has only been used as a possible place of birth since 1st January 2022. Only persons who immigrated later than this date, or who have requested a change, are registered with Palestine as their place of birth. Therefore, the number of Palestinians in Denmark is underreported. Other Palestinians will figure as unknown or a neighbouring country.

Iceland

Population as of January 1st, age is based on the age at midnight at the beginning of the day on January 1 each year.

Iceland

Resident: A new method from 2011 is based on the following sources: Residents in Iceland are those who are registered with their legal domicile in the national register and appear in at least one of the following:
Have received income subject to withholding tax in any of the last six months according to the withholding tax data of the National Statistics Office. This applies to employment income, income from own business, unemployment benefits, pension payments and all other employment-related payments or from the social system and from local authorities. Holiday payments and December bonuses are not included, however, as such payments can be received many months after the job ends. Applies to everyone except students abroad (see below).
Have been enrolled in kindergarten, elementary school, secondary school or university according to the student data of the National Statistics Office.
Be newly registered with a legal domicile in Iceland within one of the last six months after living abroad.
Be in the same family as a person who meets any of the above conditions. Children are persons who still live in their parents' house and are under 30 years old.

Finland

Population as of December 31st previous year.

Finland

Resident: A registered resident with a national identity number who has stayed or intends to stay in the country for more than 12 months.

Finland

Includes values for Åland.

Finland

For reference years 2017 to 2019, Cyprus was reported under Asia instead of EU27/EFTA/UK (excl. Nordic countries), and Andorra, Monaco and San Marino were reported under EU27/EFTA/UK (excl. Nordic countries) instead of Europe (excl. reporting country, Nordic countries and EU27/EFTA/UK). For rlater years, this has been corrected.

Norway

Resident: A registered resident with a national identity number who has stayed or intends to stay in the country for more than 6 months.

Norway

Foreign-born with two foreign-born parents and four foreign-born grandparents. Adopted foreign-born are excluded.

Norway

Descendants: Native-born with two foreign-born parents and four foreign-born grandparents.

Sweden

Population as of December 31st previous year.

Sweden

Resident: A registered resident with a national identity number who has stayed or intends to stay in the country for more than 12 months.