Foreigners report higher discrimination in Cyprus, Eurostat finds

Foreigners in Cyprus are three times more likely than Cypriots to report discrimination when accessing public services, according to data published on Friday by Eurostat.

“At EU level, data show that in 2024, people born abroad felt discriminated against to a greater extent than people born in their country of residence, in all social contexts examined,” Eurostat said.

While Cyprus follows the broader European trend, the overall share of perceived discrimination in the Republic remains below the EU average. However, the sectors in which foreigners report discrimination differ slightly from the EU pattern.

“Discrimination is the unfair or prejudicial treatment of people and groups based on the protected characteristics in the EU law: sex, age, disability, religion or belief, ethnic or racial origin and sexual orientation,” it added.

In Cyprus, the main areas where foreigners reported discrimination were public services, housing, public spaces such as cafes and shops, and education, in that order.

Some 6.6 per cent of foreign-born residents in Cyprus said they experienced discrimination when engaging with public services, compared with 1.9 per cent of Cyprus-born residents. The corresponding EU average for foreign-born residents stood at 9.7 per cent.

Housing ranked second in Cyprus, with 6 per cent of foreigners reporting discrimination, compared with 1.5 per cent of locals.

At EU level, housing was the sector with the highest reported discrimination, with 12.5 per cent of foreigners affected.

Similar tendencies were observed in the context of reported discrimination in public spaces, where 2.4 per cent of foreigners reported experiences of discrimination, comparing to 0.6 per cent of locals and 7.8 per cent in the EU.

The lowest reported level of discrimination in Cyprus concerned education, at 1.5 per cent among foreigners. Across the EU, the corresponding figures were 4.3 per cent for foreign-born residents and 2.3 per cent for native-born residents.

The Netherlands recorded the largest discrepancies between foreigners and native-born residents when it comes to discrimination in public spaces.

There, 16.2 per cent of foreign-born people said they felt discriminated against, while only 5 per cent of locals shared this sentiment.

Austria (13.9 per cent versus 6.1 per cent) and Denmark (13.1 per cent versus 5.3 per cent) also showed significant disparities.

By contrast, Croatia (0.8 per cent of foreigners and 0.7 per cent of locals) and Estonia (6.7 per cent and 6.4 per cent respectively) recorded the smallest differences.

“Subjective perceptions of discrimination, as measured through surveys, can be influenced by various factors, including individuals’ awareness, expectations, the legal context and the degree of societal acceptance,” Eurostat emphasised in the context of the release of its publication.

The data are based on respondents’ reported experiences over the previous 12 months, and over the past five years in the case of housing.