Share of foreign population in selected European countries in 1960, 1976 and 1990

Between 1960 and 1990, the foreign population of all selected Western European countries grew significantly. In these years, the share of foreign populations in Switzerland and France grew by 77 and 36 percent respectively, while the share foreign populations in Germany and Denmark were six to eight times larger by 1990. Between 1976 and 1990, the share of foreign populations also grew in most of these countries, albeit at a much lower rate; however the share of the foreign population in France actually decreased in this time, as the French government introduced a number of assimilation policies in the 1970s which granted citizenship to a large share of immigrants (the share also decreased in Switzerland, however this was due to differing calculation methods**).

2019 data for European Union states can be found here.