During the third quarter of 2017, 164 300 first time asylum seekers applied for international protection in the Member States of the European Union (EU). This means that the numbers of asylum applicants registered in the first three quarters of 2017 remain around the levels recorded in 2014, before the 2015 peaks.
Syrians and Iraqis were the most numerous
With 26 600 first time applicants between July and September 2017, Syrians remained the main citizenship of people seeking international protection in the EU Member States, ahead of Iraqis (12 500 first time applicants), Afghans and Nigerians (both around 9 900), Pakistanis (7 350), Eritreans (7 300) and Albanians (5 900). These seven citizenships accounted together for nearly half of all first time applicants in the EU Member States over the third quarter 2017.
Nearly half applied for asylum either in Germany or in Italy
During the third quarter of 2017, the highest number of first time applicants was registered in Germany (with 46 200 first time applicants, or 28% of total first time applicants in the EU Member States) and Italy (32 500, or 20%), followed by France (22 200, or 14%) and Greece (14 600, or 9%). Among Member States with more than 2 000 first time asylum seekers in the third quarter 2017, numbers of first time applicants increased most compared with the previous quarter in Sweden (+50%), Greece (+39%), Spain and the Netherlands (both +24%), while it slightly fell in Italy (-5%).
Highest number of first time applicants relative to the population in Cyprus and Greece
Compared with the total population of each Member State, the highest rate of registered first time applicants during the third quarter 2017 was recorded in Cyprus (1 577 first time applicants per million inhabitants) and Greece (1 361), followed by Malta (960) and Luxembourg (904). In contrast, the lowest rates were observed in Slovakia (4 applicants per million inhabitants), Poland (22), Portugal (23), Estonia (25), the Czech Republic (27) and Latvia (29). In the third quarter 2017, there were in total 321 first time asylum applicants per million inhabitants in the EU as a whole.
Slow decrease in the number of asylum applications still pending
Pending applications for international protection are those that have been made at any time and are still under consideration by the responsible national authorities at the end of the reference period. In other words, they refer to the “stock” of applications for which decisions are still pending. This statistic is meant to measure the workload of the national authorities.
At the end of September 2017, 960 400 applications for international protection in the EU Member States were under consideration by the responsible national authorities, down by 20% compared with September 2016. With over 469 000 pending applications at the end of September 2017 (or 49% the EU total), Germany continued to have the largest share in the EU, ahead of Italy (148 600), Sweden and Austria (both over 61 000).
This news item is complemented with a Statistics Explained article and an interactive infographic on asylum quarterly data.
For more information
Eurostat website section on asylum and managed migration
Eurostat database on asylum and managed migration
Eurostat metadata on asylum applications statistics
Eurostat news release 46/2017 of 16 March 2017 on asylum applicants in 2016