14 million people in the EU are currently exercising their right to free movement.

Omissions

• The claim says 'currently' (July 2026), but the 14 million figure is the official estimate as of 1 January 2024 — the most recent official data point found. No 2025 or 2026 figure could be located within the search limit; the trend (roughly 13.5 million in 2020 rising to 14 million by January 2024) suggests the figure remains broadly valid, but this is an extrapolation.
• The figure counts EU citizens residing long-term in another EU member state. It does not include other forms of exercising free movement (e.g., cross-border commuters or short-term stays), and it refers only to intra-EU movers, not EU citizens in non-EU countries.
• The primary Commission/Eurostat publication underlying the 14 million figure was not directly retrieved; the figure is confirmed by an official EU institution page (Council) and corroborated by a national statistical office (INE) analysis of Eurostat data.

Sources

• PrimaryInstituto Nacional de Estadística (INE, Spain) — EU citizens mobility increasingThe group of EU citizens who reside most in other EU Member States in 2020 was Romanian citizens (3.1 million or 23.0 % of all EU citizens living in another EU Member State), implying a total of roughly 13.5 million EU citizens living in another EU Member State in 2020, with the number increasing over time.
• PrimaryDestatis (German Federal Statistical Office) — Labour mobility in the EUIn 2025, a total of 7.3 million EU citizens aged 15 and over worked in other EU countries, in which they had not acquired citizenship — a narrower metric (working EU movers) that is a subset of the roughly 14 million mobile EU citizens.
• SecondaryCouncil of the European Union — Mobile EU citizens and their electoral rightsThe number of mobile EU citizens reached 14 million by 1 January 2024, and they represent over 4% of the EU electorate (2024 data).