Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
The Danish Immigration Service, Farimagsvej 51A, DK - 4700 Naestved
1.6. Contact email address
Confidential because of GDPR
1.7. Contact phone number
Confidential because of GDPR
1.8. Contact fax number
Confidential because of GDPR
2.1. Metadata last certified
24 July 2024
2.2. Metadata last posted
24 July 2024
2.3. Metadata last update
15 September 2025
3.1. Data description
Data collection on asylum statistics contains statistical information based on the Article 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3 of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 on Community statistics on migration and international protection.
Asylum applications:
Asylum, first time and subsequent applicants by citizenship, age and sex (also for unaccompanied minors);
Persons subject of asylum applications pending at the end of month by citizenship, age and sex (also for unaccompanied minors);
Asylum applications withdrawn by citizenship, age, sex and type of withdrawal (also for unaccompanied minors);
Asylum applicants having had their applications processed under the accelerated procedure by citizenship, age and sex (also for unaccompanied minors);
Applicants having benefited from material reception conditions at the end of the reference year;
Asylum applicants considered to be unaccompanied minors by citizenship, age and sex.
Decisions on asylum applications:
First instance decisions on applications by citizenship, age, sex and type of decision (also for unaccompanied minors);
Decisions withdrawing status granted at first instance decision by citizenship, type of decision and type of reason (also for unaccompanied minors);
Final decisions in appeal or review on applications by citizenship, age, sex and type of decision (also for unaccompanied minors);
Decisions withdrawing status granted as final decision in appeal or review by citizenship, type of decision and type of reason (also for unaccompanied minors).
Resettled persons:
Resettled persons by citizenship, age and sex (also for unaccompanied minors);
Resettled persons by citizenship, age, sex and country of previous residence;
Resettled persons by citizenship, age, sex and type of decision;
Resettled persons by citizenship, age, sex and resettlement framework.
In March 2022, the European Commission activated the Temporary Protection Directive 2001/55/EC for people from Ukraine seeking refuge.
Temporary protection:
Decisions granting temporary protection by citizenship, age and sex (also for unaccompanied minors);
Beneficiaries of temporary protection at the end of the month by citizenship, age and sex (also for unaccompanied minors).
3.2. Classification system
Same as Eurostat (except Palestine).
See table 3.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables Asylum’.
3.3. Coverage - sector
Migration and asylum – Asylum statistics.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
Same definitions as Eurostat, although Denmark is not taking part in the adoption of the 2013/32/EU Directive on common procedures for granting and withdrawing international protection.
Data on subsequent applicants for international protection are not applicable.
Data on applicants for international protection having had their applications processed under the accelerated procedure are sum of the manifestly unfounded procedure and the manifestly unfounded urgent procedure.
Data on persons granted authorisation to stay for humanitarian reason at first instance or final decisions are sum of persons covered by other first or final instance decisions (humanitarian reasons, temporary protection based on a particularly serious situation in the applicant’s home country, or exceptional reasons).
See table 3.4. in annex ‘Quality report tables Asylum’.
3.5. Statistical unit
Persons.
3.6. Statistical population
Foreigners and stateless persons.
See table 3.6. in annex ‘Quality report tables Asylum’.
3.7. Reference area
Denmark
3.8. Coverage - Time
Time coverage according to Regulation (EC) No 862/2007, from January 2008, eventually January 2021.
Data on pending asylum applications are not available for January 2008.
Data on withdrawn asylum applications are not available from January 2008 to December 2009.
Data on withdrawn first instance decisions are not available from Q1 2008 to Q4 2010.
Data on withdrawn final decisions are not available for 2008, 2009 and 2015.
See table 3.8. in annex ‘Quality report tables Asylum’.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Number of persons.
Calendar month, calendar quarter and calendar year.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
Compilation of statistics on asylum applications is based on Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 and amending Regulation (EU) 2020/852, which depicts in detail the data provisions Member States are bound to supply Eurostat with.
The law on Statistics Denmark, "Bekendtgørelse af lov om Danmarks Statistik", LBK nr 610 of 30 May 2018, is the main national legal act regarding official national and international statistics.
All statistics on asylum are collected and processed by the statistical unit at the Danish Immigration Service. The unit provides statistics on behalf of all migration authorities in Denmark including the Ministry of Immigration and Integration.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Not applicable.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.
The Danish Immigration Service treats personal information in line with the General Data Protection Regulation, supplemented by the national "Databeskyttelsesloven" LOV 289 of 08 March 2024. More information on processing of personal data can be found here: New to Denmark (nyidanmark.dk)
8.1. Release calendar
Statistical information is published in accordance with an approved release calendar.
Apart from providing data on Asylum statistics to Eurostat, the Danish Immigration Service provides weekly, monthly and yearly publications in Danish on its website: Tal og statistik (us.dk). A release calendar can be found under each publication.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
Ad-hoc press releases are usually published by the Ministry of Immigration and Integration.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Weekly, monthly and yearly publications are released on the website of the Danish Immigration Service: Tal og statistik (us.dk) (in Danish).
Data checks and data validation are performed regularly. The Statistical Unit is in constant contact with the specialist offices for consultation on suspicious/unusual registrations (outliers or obvious mistakes such as a negative age) and feedback on the plausibility of the numbers. Case managers have access to statistics with a delay of maximum one day and can thereby follow the development of the numbers almost in real time. Finally, there are more extensive checks performed at the end of a year and in connection with regular publications, such as the delivery of data to Eurostat.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
Asylum statistics are based on administrative sources which allows a good quality of the data.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Users of Eurostat asylum statistics are:
various policy DGs in the European Commission, like DG Migration and Home Affairs for designing, funding and implementing asylum related policies in the EU,
European Parliament,
national authorities (Ministries of Interior, Ministries of Justice, immigration agencies) who use Asylum data to monitor or project the development of their national asylum procedures,
European Migration Network (EMN) which uses the Asylum data as a basis for its annual EU and national level statistical and analytical reports,
researchers and students conducting analysis and research in the field of asylum,
journalists and international organisations in the area of asylum and migration.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
The Danish Immigration Service does not conduct user satisfaction surveys per se. Instead, the user satisfaction is monitored on a constant way through informal and formal contacts and communications with users and through requests and comments received by users.
12.3. Completeness
The required disaggregation for all datasets is complete.
See table 12.3. in annex ‘Quality report tables Asylum’.
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
Not applicable.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
The overall accuracy is high.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable.
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
Not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not applicable.
13.3.1. Coverage error
No coverage errors. All registered persons are covered in statistics.
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
Not applicable.
13.3.2. Measurement error
The only errors can come from recording errors (erroneous variable or missing data).
13.3.3. Non response error
Not applicable.
13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.4. Processing error
Not applicable.
13.3.5. Model assumption error
Not applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
For monthly data it takes around 2 weeks before the data for the previous month gets published on us.dk and sent to Eurostat.
For yearly data the Danish Immigration Service performs a Data Freeze in the beginning of February and after a period of data checks it gets sent to Eurostat in March.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
Not applicable.
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
Not applicable.
14.2. Punctuality
Data are delivered on time.
See table 14.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables Asylum’.
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
Not applicable.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
The asylum statistics are comparable between all regions of Denmark, there is only one national system of accumulating and processing the data.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Data are comparable over time, except data on refugge status, subsidiary protection and humanitarian status.
Data on applicants for international protection having had their applications processed under the accelerated procedure differ in definition.
Data on persons granted refugee status and subsidiary protection status at first instance or final decisions have shown a decrease since 2015 with introduction of new legislation on humanitarian reasons.
Data on persons granted authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons at first instance or final decisions are affected by the introduction of new legislation on humanitarian reasons in 2015.
See table 15.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables Asylum’.
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
The comparability over time is affected by updates of requested statistics.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
No incoherence noticed.
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
A person who makes multiple applications during the reference year will be counted only once in annual data.
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
Not applicable.
15.4. Coherence - internal
The asylum statistics are internally coherent, they are produced from one source database.
Not applicable.
17.1. Data revision - policy
The data material undergoes validation on a regular basis. The Danish Immigration Service will send revised data to Eurostat if significant changes occur.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Yearly control and unplanned spontaneous regular revisions.
See table 17.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables Asylum’.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Not applicable.
18.1. Source data
The administrative data of The Danish Immigration Service. Before 1 August 2020, some statistics collected from The Danish National Police.
See table 18.1. in annex ‘Quality report tables Asylum’.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Continuous registrations.
18.3. Data collection
By default, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees records administrative data on all asylum seekers in the asylum application.
The collected data of the original electronic file system is transferred to the data warehouse overnight in the form of statistic-relevant data records. Each data record is clearly identifiable via the person id already assigned in advance.
Exception: Table A21 is collected once a year from the National Reception Office.
18.4. Data validation
The statistics are carried out annually as a complete survey on the basis of an electronic file system. Consequently, sample-related errors are excluded. The input data is continuously validated during the process and subjected to a plausibility check. Errors due to incorrect information in the input data cannot be ruled out. As a result, the results of the asylum business statistics are generally of high significance, quality and validity.
18.5. Data compilation
The processing and compilation of the asylum statistics are solely based on administrative records – from ECDH. As a main rule, the compilation of statistics is based on figures directly retrieved from the ECDH system by using a Business Intelligence (BI) solution – no cell rounding of the data is applied. The data material undergoes validation on a regular basis.
Data collection on asylum statistics contains statistical information based on the Article 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3 of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 on Community statistics on migration and international protection.
Asylum applications:
Asylum, first time and subsequent applicants by citizenship, age and sex (also for unaccompanied minors);
Persons subject of asylum applications pending at the end of month by citizenship, age and sex (also for unaccompanied minors);
Asylum applications withdrawn by citizenship, age, sex and type of withdrawal (also for unaccompanied minors);
Asylum applicants having had their applications processed under the accelerated procedure by citizenship, age and sex (also for unaccompanied minors);
Applicants having benefited from material reception conditions at the end of the reference year;
Asylum applicants considered to be unaccompanied minors by citizenship, age and sex.
Decisions on asylum applications:
First instance decisions on applications by citizenship, age, sex and type of decision (also for unaccompanied minors);
Decisions withdrawing status granted at first instance decision by citizenship, type of decision and type of reason (also for unaccompanied minors);
Final decisions in appeal or review on applications by citizenship, age, sex and type of decision (also for unaccompanied minors);
Decisions withdrawing status granted as final decision in appeal or review by citizenship, type of decision and type of reason (also for unaccompanied minors).
Resettled persons:
Resettled persons by citizenship, age and sex (also for unaccompanied minors);
Resettled persons by citizenship, age, sex and country of previous residence;
Resettled persons by citizenship, age, sex and type of decision;
Resettled persons by citizenship, age, sex and resettlement framework.
In March 2022, the European Commission activated the Temporary Protection Directive 2001/55/EC for people from Ukraine seeking refuge.
Temporary protection:
Decisions granting temporary protection by citizenship, age and sex (also for unaccompanied minors);
Beneficiaries of temporary protection at the end of the month by citizenship, age and sex (also for unaccompanied minors).
15 September 2025
Same definitions as Eurostat, although Denmark is not taking part in the adoption of the 2013/32/EU Directive on common procedures for granting and withdrawing international protection.
Data on subsequent applicants for international protection are not applicable.
Data on applicants for international protection having had their applications processed under the accelerated procedure are sum of the manifestly unfounded procedure and the manifestly unfounded urgent procedure.
Data on persons granted authorisation to stay for humanitarian reason at first instance or final decisions are sum of persons covered by other first or final instance decisions (humanitarian reasons, temporary protection based on a particularly serious situation in the applicant’s home country, or exceptional reasons).
See table 3.4. in annex ‘Quality report tables Asylum’.
Persons.
Foreigners and stateless persons.
See table 3.6. in annex ‘Quality report tables Asylum’.
Denmark
Calendar month, calendar quarter and calendar year.
The overall accuracy is high.
Number of persons.
The processing and compilation of the asylum statistics are solely based on administrative records – from ECDH. As a main rule, the compilation of statistics is based on figures directly retrieved from the ECDH system by using a Business Intelligence (BI) solution – no cell rounding of the data is applied. The data material undergoes validation on a regular basis.
The administrative data of The Danish Immigration Service. Before 1 August 2020, some statistics collected from The Danish National Police.
See table 18.1. in annex ‘Quality report tables Asylum’.
Apart from providing data on Asylum statistics to Eurostat, the Danish Immigration Service provides weekly, monthly and yearly publications in Danish on its website: Tal og statistik (us.dk). A release calendar can be found under each publication.
For monthly data it takes around 2 weeks before the data for the previous month gets published on us.dk and sent to Eurostat.
For yearly data the Danish Immigration Service performs a Data Freeze in the beginning of February and after a period of data checks it gets sent to Eurostat in March.
The asylum statistics are comparable between all regions of Denmark, there is only one national system of accumulating and processing the data.
Data are comparable over time, except data on refugge status, subsidiary protection and humanitarian status.
Data on applicants for international protection having had their applications processed under the accelerated procedure differ in definition.
Data on persons granted refugee status and subsidiary protection status at first instance or final decisions have shown a decrease since 2015 with introduction of new legislation on humanitarian reasons.
Data on persons granted authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons at first instance or final decisions are affected by the introduction of new legislation on humanitarian reasons in 2015.
See table 15.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables Asylum’.
