During an interpellation in Parliament, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze presented detailed statistics on foreign residents in Georgia, stating that 107,307 foreigners currently hold residence permits in the country.
Preliminary data from the nationwide census estimates the total number of foreigners living in Georgia – including both legal and undocumented migrants – at around 257,000. Over 70% of them come from post-Soviet countries, the EU, the U.S., and Israel.
Top Countries by Residence Permits
At the top of the list is Russia, followed by India and Azerbaijan. Kobakhidze clarified that a significant share of Russian citizens holding residence permits are ethnic Georgians or former Georgian citizens, making up roughly 30% of that group.
- Russia: 32,129 permits (29.9%)
- India: 23,930 permits, mostly students
- Azerbaijan: 6.3%, largely ethnic Azerbaijanis who returned to Georgia
- Ukraine: 6,290 permits (5.9%), plus around 25,000 Ukrainians with refugee status
- Armenia: over 5,000 (4.8%), mainly returnees with Armenian citizenship
- Belarus: 3,738 (3.5%)
- Turkey: 3,645 (3.4%)
- Iran: 3,331 (3.1%)
- Sudan: 2%, mostly medical students
- China: over 2,000 (1.9%), primarily workers on infrastructure projects
- Jordan: over 2,000 (1.9%), mostly medical students
- Pakistan: 1,618 (1.5%), mainly medical students
- Egypt: 1,341 (1.2%), mostly medical university students
- USA: over 1,000 (1%)
Kobakhidze noted that residence permit data provides a clear picture of the presence and origins of foreigners in Georgia, reflecting the main reasons for their stay and highlighting the diversity of the foreign population.
