Malta issued the highest number of residency permits in 2015, compared to its population, statistics issued by the World Economic Forum show.

Malta issued 23.1 first-time residence permits per thousand people in the population. Cyprus is second, with 18.4 issued per thousand; Poland third with 14.3; Sweden fourth with 11.3; and the UK fifth with 9.7.

The Maltese government has been under fire for several months in the wake of the individual investment programme (IIP), as well as other scandals linked with the issuing of visas to Libyans and Algerians.

Some 7,000 visas were issued to Algerians and another 14,000 to Libyans in the past months

The World Economic Forum report confirms that Malta is way in front of other countries in such statistics.

In 2015, 2.6 million first-time residence permits were issued in the European Union to non-EU citizens, a record number and a rise of 12.1% compared with the year before.

The highest number of permits was issued in the United Kingdom. Almost a quarter of the total of all the permits issued in the EU were issued in the country – 633,000 in total, according to data compiled by Eurostat.

Poland was next, issuing over half a million permits (542,000), which represents over a fifth of all permits.

France issued close to a quarter of a million permits (227,000) – less than 10% of the total. Germany issued 195,000, Spain issued 193,000 and Italy issued 179,000.

The full report can be seen here