Number of new Italian citizens surges

Rome, Oct 10 (IANS/AKI) Over 184,000 immigrants from outside the European Union became Italian citizens last year, more than triple the number in 2011, figures from Italy's national statistics agency Istat showed on Tuesday.

A total of 184,638 such people acquired Italian citizenship in 2016, compared with less than 50,000 in 2011, Istat said.

The largest group were Albanians (36,920), followed by Moroccans (35,212), while 41.2 percent of new Italian citizens were people aged under 20, according to Istat.

Among more than 541,000 people from outside the EU who gained Italian citizenship between 2012 and 2016, over 24,000 moved abroad, the Istat data said.

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