Croatian nationals residing in Germany are the fourth largest group of immigrants from the European Union to immigrate exclusively to get a new job, according to this year's census, published on Friday by the German Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden.

In the census, 131,000 surveyed German citizens holding Croatian citizenship said they had immigrated to Germany solely for the purpose of employment, the Federal Statistical Office told Hina.

Croatia is thus ranked fourth in terms of the number of labour migrants from a European Union member state.

Poland tops the list with 380,000 labour migrants, followed by Romania with 271,000 and Italy with 208,000 labour migrants.

The numbers do not include persons who immigrated to Germany for a different purpose, such as family reunification or study, and then found employment there.

At the end of 2021, there were 434,610 Croatian nationals living in Germany.

A year before that, the number stood at 426,845.

In 2013, when Croatia joined the European Union, there were 240,543 German residents with a Croatian passport.

Of the countries outside the European Union, countries of the former Yugoslavia are also near the top of the list in terms of the number of citizens who immigrated to Germany to find employment.