Russians make largest group that entered Georgia in 2022
Russian citizens have accounted for the largest share of people who entered Georgia in 2022 and stayed there for an extended period of time, followed by Ukrainians.
Source: News-Georgia, citing the National Statistics Service
Details: Last year, Georgia’s population grew by 1.3% due to migration, while mortality remained higher than the birth rate.
The migration net was positive, with 55,000 more people having entered the country (a total of 180,000) than those who left it (just over 125,000). The majority of people leaving and arriving are in the 15-54 age group.
Russian citizens are the most numerous group among those who came to Georgia in 2022, numbering about 62,300 people. At the same time, 5,935 Russian citizens left in 2022.
The second largest number of people who entered Georgia were Georgian citizens, about 54,400 people, with almost twice as many Georgian citizens (100,800) leaving the country.
Ukrainians comprise the third largest group among immigrants to Georgia, at about 20,700 people. In 2022, 2,004 Ukrainian citizens left the country.
The fourth largest group is Belarusians (about 13,000), with 852 Belarusian citizens leaving Georgia in 2022.
Immigrants are defined in the statistics as people who arrived in the country and stayed there for at least 183 days within the last 12 months, with Georgia not being their country of permanent residence before. The mirror approach applies to emigration.
Background:
- Russian citizens began migrating to Georgia after the outbreak of the full-scale war in Ukraine in February 2022. There were two major waves, in spring and autumn 2022, after the announcement of mobilisation in Russia.
- Russian citizens have opened more than 100,000 bank accounts in Georgia in 2022.
- Opinion polls show that 79% of Georgians stand for cancelling the visa-free regime for Russian citizens.
- The opposition in Georgia has proposed reducing visa-free travel for Russians to 30 days instead of a year to limit the uncontrolled migration from Russia. The Georgian authorities have repeatedly stated that they see no threats in the mass migration of Russians to the country.
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