1.1. Contact organisation

Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

1.2. Contact organisation unit

F2: Population and migration

1.3. Contact name

Restricted from publication

1.4. Contact person function

Restricted from publication

1.5. Contact mail address

2920 Luxembourg LUXEMBOURG

1.6. Contact email address

Restricted from publication

1.7. Contact phone number

Restricted from publication

1.8. Contact fax number

Restricted from publication

2.1. Metadata last certified

6 December 2024

2.2. Metadata last posted

6 December 2024

2.3. Metadata last update

10 February 2025

3.1. Data description

National reference metadata, produced by countries and released by Eurostat, are available in the European reference metadata for asylum applications. Applications (migr_asyapp)

Data series on decisions on asylum applications and resettlement contain statistical information based on Article 4 of the Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 with reference to:

• Persons covered by first instance decisions rejecting applications for international protection by age, sex, citizenship and status of minors;
• Persons covered by first instance decisions granting, revoking, ending or refusing to renew refugee status by age, sex, citizenship and status of minors;
• Persons covered by first instance decisions granting, revoking, ending or refusing to renew subsidiary protection status by age, sex, citizenship and status of minors;
• Persons covered by first instance decisions granting or withdrawing temporary protection by age, sex, citizenship and status of minors;
• Persons covered by other first instance decisions granting or withdrawing authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons by age, sex, citizenship and status of minors;
• Persons covered by final decisions rejecting applications for international protection by age, sex, citizenship and status of minors;
• Persons covered by final decisions granting, revoking, ending or refusing to renew refugee status by age, sex, citizenship and status of minors;
• Persons covered by final decisions granting, revoking, ending or refusing to renew subsidiary protection status by age, sex, citizenship and status of minors;
• Persons covered by final decisions granting or withdrawing temporary protection by age, sex, citizenship and status of minors;
• Persons covered by other final decisions, taken in appeal or review, granting or withdrawing authorisations to stay for humanitarian reasons by age, sex, citizenship and status of minors;
• Persons who have been granted an authorisation to reside in a Member State within the framework of a national or Community resettlement scheme by age, sex, citizenship, status of minors, country of previous residence and type of decision.

Data are presented by country and aggregation for the European Union.

Data are rounded to the nearest 5.

3.2. Classification system

The classification of codes on the reporting country (GEO), on the country of citizenship of asylum applicants (CITIZEN) and the country of previous residence (C_RESID) corresponds to the ISO 3166 code-list (3166-1 alpha-2) with the exception of:

• Greece where the code "EL" was adopted (instead of "GR") and
• United Kingdom where the code "UK" was adopted (instead of "GB"). 

Classification	Eurostat breakdown
Age	0-13, 14-17, 18-34, 35-64, 65 and over, Unknown
Sex	Male, Female, Unknown
Citizenship	ISO 3166 alpha-2
Status of minor	Unaccompanied minor, Accompanied minor, Unknown, Not applicable
Decision	Geneva Convention status, Humanitarian status, Subsidiary protection status, Temporary protection status for decisions withdrawing and Geneva Convention status, Subsidiary protection status, Other positive decisions, Unknown for resettled persons
Reason	Revocation, Ending, Refusal to renew, Unknown
Country of previous residence	ISO 3166 alpha-2
Resettlement framework	EU Resettlement Frameworks, Other, Unknown

3.3. Coverage - sector

Asylum migration - international protection statistics.

3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions

Statistical concepts and definitions for decisions on asylum applications and resettlement are based on definitions in Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007, Article 2 of Directive 2011/95/EU and Directive 2013/32/EU.

First instance decision is a positive or negative decision considering applications for international protection as well as the grants of authorisations to stay for humanitarian reasons, including decisions under priority and accelerated procedures taken by administrative or judicial bodies in Member States.

Final decision is a positive or negative decisions considering applications for international protection as well as the grants of authorisations to stay for humanitarian reasons, including decisions under priority and accelerated procedures, in appeal or in review and which are no longer subject to remedy, taken by administrative or judicial bodies in Member States.

Concepts	Definition
Rejected applicants for international protection at first instance	Persons covered by first instance decisions rejecting applications for international protection, such as decisions considering applications as inadmissible or as unfounded and decisions under priority and accelerated procedures, taken by administrative or judicial bodies during the reference period.
Persons granted refugee status at first instance	Persons covered by first instance decisions granting refugee status, taken by administrative or judicial bodies during the reference period.
Persons granted subsidiary protection at first instance	Persons covered by first instance decisions granting subsidiary protection status, taken by administrative or judicial bodies during the reference period.
Persons granted temporary protection at first instance	Persons covered by first instance decisions granting temporary protection, taken by administrative or judicial bodies during the reference period.
Persons granted authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons at first instance	Persons covered by other first instance decisions granting authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons under national law concerning international protection, taken by administrative or judicial bodies during the reference period.
Withdrawals at first instance	Persons covered by first instance decisions withdrawing refugee status, subsidiary protection status, temporary protection or authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons under national law concerning international protection status, taken by administrative or judicial bodies during the reference period.
Rejected applicants for international protection, final decisions	Persons covered by final decisions rejecting applications for international protection, such as decisions considering applications as inadmissible or as unfounded and decisions under priority and accelerated procedures, taken by administrative or judicial bodies in appeal or review during the reference period.
Persons granted refugee status, final decisions	Persons covered by final decisions granting refugee status taken by administrative or judicial bodies in appeal or review during the reference period.
Persons granted subsidiary protection status, final decisions	Persons covered by final decisions granting subsidiary protection status taken by administrative or judicial bodies in appeal or review during the reference period.
Persons granted temporary protection, final decisions	Persons covered by final decisions granting temporary protection taken by administrative or judicial bodies in appeal or review during the reference period.
Persons granted authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons, final decisions	Persons covered by other final decisions, taken by administrative or judicial bodies in appeal or review, granting authorisations to stay for humanitarian reasons under national law concerning international protection during the reference period.
Withdrawals, final decisions	Persons covered by final decisions withdrawing refugee status, subsidiary protection status, temporary protection or granting authorisations to stay for humanitarian reasons under national law concerning international protection, taken by administrative or judicial bodies in appeal or review during the reference period.
Resettled persons	Persons who have been granted an authorisation to reside in a Member State within the framework of a national or Community resettlement scheme during the reference period, where such a scheme is implemented in that Member State.

3.5. Statistical unit

All data explicitly refer to the number of persons.

3.6. Statistical population

Statistical population for decisions on asylum applications and resettlement are third-country nationals, i.e. any person who is not a citizen of the European Union within the meaning of Article 17(1) of the Treaty, including stateless persons.

3.7. Reference area

EU Member States, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, Montenegro.

Croatia from January 2012.

Montenegro from January 2018.

United Kingdom until November 2020.

3.8. Coverage - Time

According Regulation (EC) No 862/2007, statistics on decisions on asylum applications and resettlement have been collected since the first quarter of 2008. Some other statistics or disaggregation were introduced later. (Statistics | Eurostat)

In addition, some statistics collected previously on a voluntary basis are available for the period 1999-2007. (Statistics | Eurostat)

Datasets	Complete data series	Data later or missing
Rejected applicants for international protection at first instance	Data since Q1 2008 – BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, IT, LV, LT, LU, HU, MT, NL, AT, PL, PT, RO, SI, SK, FI, SE, IS, LI, NO, CH (29)	HR – since Q1 2012; CY – since Q1 2009; ME – since Q1 2018; UK – until Q3 2020 (4)
Persons granted refugee status at first instance	Data since Q1 2008 – BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, IT, LV, LT, LU, HU, MT, NL, AT, PL, PT, RO, SI, SK, FI, SE, IS, LI, NO, CH (29)	HR – since Q1 2012; CY – since Q1 2009; ME – since Q1 2018; UK – until Q3 2020 (4)
Persons granted subsidiary protection at first instance	Data since Q1 2008 – BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, IT, LV, LT, LU, HU, MT, NL, AT, PL, PT, RO, SI, SK, FI, SE, IS, LI, NO, CH (29)	HR – since Q1 2012; CY – since Q1 2009; ME – since Q1 2018; UK – until Q3 2020 (4)
Persons granted temporary protection at first instance	Data since Q1 2022 – BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, HR, IT, CY, LV, LT, LU, HU, MT, NL, AT, PL, PT, RO, SI, SK, FI, SE, IS, LI, NO, CH (31)	ME, UK – not applicable (2)
Persons granted authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons at first instance	Data since Q1 2008 – CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, IT, LT, HU, MT, NL, AT, PL, RO, SK, FI, SE, IS, LI, NO, CH (22)	BE, BG, FR, HR, LV, LU, PT, SI – not applicable; CY – from Q1 2009 to Q4 2014, after not applicable; ME – since Q1 2018; UK – until Q3 2020 (11)
Withdrawals at first instance	Data since Q1 2008 – BE, BG, CZ, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, IT, LV, LT, LU, HU, MT, AT, PL, PT, RO, SI, SK, SE, IS, CH (24)	DK – since Q1 2011; HR – since Q1 2012; CY – since Q1 2009; NL – Q1-Q4 2014 and since Q1 2016; FI – since Q1 2012; LI – since Q1 2009; NO – since Q1 2009; ME – since Q1 2018; UK – from Q1 2010 to Q3 2020 (9)
Rejected applicants for international protection, final decisions	Data since 2008 – BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, IT, CY, LV, LT, LU, HU, MT, NL, AT, PL, PT, RO, SI, SK, FI, SE, IS, LI, NO, CH (30)	HR – since 2012; ME – since 2018; UK – until 2019 (3)
Persons granted refugee status, final decisions	Data since 2008 – BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, IT, CY, LV, LT, LU, HU, MT, NL, AT, PL, PT, RO, SI, SK, FI, SE, IS, LI, NO, CH (30)	HR – since 2012; ME – since 2018; UK – until 2019 (3)
Persons granted subsidiary protection status, final decisions	Data since 2008 – BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, IT, CY, LV, LT, LU, HU, MT, NL, AT, PL, PT, RO, SI, SK, FI, SE, IS, LI, NO, CH (30)	HR – since 2012; ME – since 2018; UK – until 2019 (3)
Persons granted temporary protection, final decisions	Data since 2022 – BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, HR, IT, CY, LV, LT, LU, HU, MT, NL, AT, PL, PT, RO, SI, SK, FI, SE, IS, LI, NO, CH (31)	ME, UK – not applicable (2)
Persons granted authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons, final decisions	Data since 2008 – CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, IT, LT, HU, MT, NL, AT, PL, RO, SK, FI, SE, IS, LI, NO, CH (22)	BE, BG, FR, HR, CY (since 2015), LV, LU, PT, SI – not applicable; ME – since 2018; UK – until 2019 (11)
Withdrawals, final decisions	Data since 2008 – BE, BG, CZ, DE, EE, EL, IT, CY, LV, MT, AT, SI, FI, SE, CH (15)	DK – no 2008, 2009, 2015; IE – since 2015; ES – since 2013; FR – no 2008, 2010, 2011; HR – since 2012; LT – no 2008, 2015; LU – since 2009; HU – no 2011-2014; NL – since 2014; PL – since 2011; PT – no 2010; RO – no 2010; SK – no 2010, 2012; IS – no 2010, 2013; LI – no 2011, 2012, 2014; NO – no 2008, 2022; ME – since 2018; UK – from 2010 to 2019 (18)
Resettled persons	Data since 2008 – BG, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, FR, IT, CY, LV, LT, LU, HU, MT, NL, AT, PL, PT, RO, SI, SK, FI, SE, IS, LI, NO (26)	BE – no 2008, 2010, 2012; CZ – since 2010; ES – since 2009; HR – since 2012; CH – since 2010; ME – not applicable; UK – until 2019 (7)

3.9. Base period

Not applicable.

Number of persons.

Calendar quarter and calendar year.

6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements

Compilation of statistics on decisions on asylum applications and resettlement 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.

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.

7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment

Data on decisions on asylum applications and resettlement are not confidential.

8.1. Release calendar

Statistical information is published in accordance with an approved release calendar.

8.2. Release calendar access

Release calendar - Eurostat (europa.eu).

8.3. Release policy - user access

In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.

Data is disseminated continuously. 

10.1. Dissemination format - News release

Data on decisions on asylum applications and resettlement are used in quarterly and annual news articles. Publications - Eurostat.

10.2. Dissemination format - Publications

Data on decisions on asylum applications and resettlement are used in regular publications (News articles, Statistics Explained articles and other publications).

Publications - Eurostat.

Eurostat produces Statistics Explained articles:

• Asylum statistics introduced - Statistics Explained;
• Asylum applications - annual statistics - Statistics Explained;
• Asylum applications - monthly statistics - Statistics Explained;
• Asylum decisions - annual statistics - Statistics Explained;
• Asylum decisions - quarterly statistics - Statistics Explained;
• Statistics on countries responsible for asylum applications (Dublin Regulation) - Statistics Explained.

10.3. Dissemination format - online database

Data are published on the Eurostat website Database - Eurostat in the folder Decisions on applications and resettlement (migr_asydec).

10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access

Not applicable.

10.5. Dissemination format - other

Data are rounded to the nearest 5.

Due to the rounding, the sum of individual cells may not necessarily match the given total.

10.6. Documentation on methodology

Asylum - Eurostat guidelines to Asylum templates - 2021 onwards is a Technical Guidelines for the data collection under art. 4.1-4.3 of amended Regulation (EC) No 862/2007.

10.7. Quality management - documentation

• Eurostat’s quality policy;
• European Statistics Code of Practice;
• European Statistical System Quality Assurance Framework;
• European Statistical System Handbook on Quality and Metadata Reports.

11.1. Quality assurance

Eurostat has developed an asylum metadata and quality questionnaire to ensure the compliance of Member States with the requirements of Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007. 

According to Article 9 of the Regulation, Member States must report to Eurostat on the data sources used, the reasons for the selection of these sources and the effects of the selected data on the quality of the statistics. 

Member States collect the required data following the guidelines and instructions provided by Eurostat. Consistency checks are performed before data is published.

In addition, to ensure that the statistical practices used in the compilation of asylum data are in compliance with the methodological requirements and that best practices in the field of asylum statistics are followed, Eurostat organises every year a dedicated Working Group on asylum and managed migration statistics, where quality and methodological issues are discussed with national data providers.

11.2. Quality management - assessment

Asylum statistics are based on administrative sources. Certain differences in definitions and practices of producing asylum statistics exist between countries. However, the Member States are generally following the requirements of the Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 and the quality of the data may be assessed as good or very good.

12.1. Relevance - User Needs

Users of Eurostat asylum statistics are:

• various policy DGs in the European Commission, like DG for Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME) for designing, funding and implementing asylum related policies in the EU,
• European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) for statistical and analytical reports,
• 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) for 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

Eurostat user satisfaction surveys are carried out at least once every 2 years. In addition, 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

Completeness of the decisions on asylum applications and resettlement data depends largely on the availability of data from the relevant data providers (Ministries of the Interior, related immigration agencies and National Statistical Institutes).

The following table describes the completeness of the data from 2021.

Datasets	All required disaggregation	Missing disaggregation
Rejected applicants for international protection at first instance	BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, HR, IT, LV, LT, LU, HU, MT, NL, AT, PT, RO, SI, SK, FI, SE, IS, LI, NO, CH, ME (30)	Missing status of minors – CY (from Q1 2021 to Q4 2023), PL. (2)
Persons granted refugee status at first instance	BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, HR, IT, LV, LT, LU, HU, MT, NL, AT, PT, RO, SI, SK, FI, SE, IS, LI, NO, CH, ME (30)	Missing status of minors – CY (from Q1 2021 to Q4 2023), PL. (2)
Persons granted subsidiary protection at first instance	BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, HR, IT, LV, LT, LU, HU, MT, NL, AT, PT, RO, SI, SK, FI, SE, IS, LI, NO, CH, ME (30)	Missing status of minors – CY (from Q1 2021 to Q4 2023), PL. (2)
Persons granted temporary protection at first instance	BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, HR, IT, CY, LV, LT, LU, HU, MT, NL, AT, PL, PT, RO, SI, SK, FI, SE, IS, LI, NO, CH (31)	Not applicable – ME. (1)
Persons granted authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons at first instance	CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, IT, LT, HU, MT, NL, AT, RO, SK, FI, SE, IS, LI, NO, CH, ME (22)	Not applicable – BE, BG, FR, HR, CY, LV, LU, PT, SI. Missing status of minors – PL. (10)
Withdrawals at first instance	BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, HR, IT, CY, LV, LT, LU, HU, MT, NL, AT, PL, PT, RO, SI, SK, FI, SE, IS, LI, NO, CH, ME (32)	(0)
Rejected applicants for international protection, final decisions	BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, HR, IT, LV, LT, LU, HU, MT, NL, AT, PT, RO, SI, SK, FI, SE, IS, LI, NO, CH, ME (30)	Missing status of minors – CY, PL. (2)
Persons granted refugee status, final decisions	BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, HR, IT, LV, LT, LU, HU, MT, NL, AT, PT, RO, SI, SK, FI, SE, IS, LI, NO, CH, ME (30)	Missing status of minors – CY, PL. (2)
Persons granted subsidiary protection status, final decisions	BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, HR, IT, LV, LT, LU, HU, MT, NL, AT, PT, RO, SI, SK, FI, SE, IS, LI, NO, CH, ME (30)	Missing status of minors – CY, PL. (2)
Persons granted temporary protection, final decisions	BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, HR, IT, CY, LV, LT, LU, HU, MT, NL, AT, PL, PT, RO, SI, SK, FI, SE, IS, LI, NO, CH (31)	Not applicable – ME. (1)
Persons granted authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons, final decisions	CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, IT, LT, HU, MT, NL, AT, RO, SK, FI, SE, IS, LI, NO, CH, ME (22)	Not applicable – BE, BG, FR, HR, CY, LV, LU, PT, SI. Missing status of minors – PL. (10)
Withdrawals, final decisions	BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, HR, IT, CY, LV, LT, LU, HU, MT, NL, AT, PL, PT, RO, SI, SK, FI, SE, IS, LI, NO, CH, ME (31)	Missing type of reason – FR. (1)
Resettled persons	BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, HR, CY, LV, LT, LU, HU, MT, NL, AT, PL, PT, RO, SI, SK, FI, SE, LI, NO (25)	Missing country of previous residence – ES, FR, IS, CH. Missing type of decision – IT. Missing resettlement framework – ES, FR, MT. Not applicable – ME. (7)

13.1. Accuracy - overall

The accuracy of statistical outputs in the general statistical sense is the degree of closeness of estimates to the true values.

The overall assessment of the accuracy of the data collection is considered to be high.

The asylum data are collected mainly through national administrative sources (registers in Ministries of the Interior, related immigration agencies and National Statistical Institutes).

Main sources of errors are:

• differences in definitions by not recording a certain information, which may thus lead to over or under coverage of the target population, or
• errors in the administrative register system (less often, mainly of technical nature).

EU aggregate is calculated as the sum of data from all Member States. It may be overestimated because of a certain risk that the same third-country national could apply for asylum in other Member States during the same reference period. While such risk is limited for high frequency quarterly data, annual aggregates at the EU level (based on quarterly statistics) can be possibly more affected by such double counting.

The following table describes the accuracy of data from 2008.

Datasets	Accuracy
Rejected applicants for international protection at first instance	IE (Q1 2017 break in time series), PT (Q1 2024 break in time series)
Persons granted refugee status at first instance	PT (Q1 2024 break in time series)
Persons granted subsidiary protection at first instance	PT (Q1 2024 break in time series)
Persons granted temporary protection at first instance	No comments
Persons granted authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons at first instance	No comments
Withdrawals at first instance	No comments
Rejected applicants for international protection, final decisions	No comments
Persons granted refugee status, final decisions	No comments
Persons granted subsidiary protection status, final decisions	No comments
Persons granted temporary protection, final decisions	No comments
Persons granted authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons, final decisions	No comments
Withdrawals, final decisions	No comments
Resettled persons	FI (2021 break in time series), IT (2021, 2022, 2023 definition differs)

13.2. Sampling error

Not applicable.

13.3. Non-sampling error

Not applicable.

14.1. Timeliness

Depending on the data periodicity, the data is provided to Eurostat by the reporting countries:

• Quarterly data: not later than 2 months after the end of the reference period,
• Annual data: not later than 3 months after the end of the reference period. 

Generally, data are released by Eurostat on the public online database approximately 3 working days immediately after their reception (given that they do not contain any errors). In exceptional cases (large revisions, further validation, technical reasons, etc.) data may be disseminated later than 3 working days.

14.2. Punctuality

The punctuality of the data is overall good.

Majority of countries are able to meet the requirements of transmitting the data within the deadlines foreseen in the Regulation (EC) No 862/2007.

However, it is often the case that few countries might transmit the data some days/weeks after the deadline. The number of countries, which provide delayed data can vary from period to period depending on problems that may arise in the respective national administrative systems.

15.1. Comparability - geographical

The geographical comparability across countries may be affected by the fact that in some cases an applicant may submit a request in more than one country during the same reference period. 

15.2. Comparability - over time

The comparability over time of asylum applicants is affected by updates of requested statistics.

1. Period January 1985 – December 2007: data collected on the voluntary basis.
2. Period January 2008 – December 2014: data by Regulation (EC) No 862/2007.
3. Period January 2014 – December 2020: implementation of the new 2013 Asylum Guidelines.
4. Period from January 2021: implementation of the new 2021 Asylum Guidelines. 

15.3. Coherence - cross domain

Not applicable.

15.4. Coherence - internal

Internal consistency (between time, age, sex, country, citizenship) is ensured through various validation checks performed both by national data providers but also by Eurostat before data publication.

The types of statistics required under the Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 are needed also for national purposes, such as for the management of the national system for processing asylum applications. In almost all cases, the data is based on existing administrative and statistical systems. The specific burdens placed by the Regulation on national authorities are therefore related to the need to prepare particular disaggregation or tables that might not otherwise have been produced, and to the need to apply the harmonised statistical definitions and concepts. For some national authorities, this resulted in one-off costs associated with the necessary adaptations to methods, procedures and systems.

The extent of the additional burdens varied between Member States according to the degree of similarity between the existing national systems for migration statistics and the requirements of the Regulation. However, in most Member States and for most of the statistics covered by the Regulation, the additional costs and burden are believed to be relatively limited and to be proportionate to the benefits obtained at both EU and national level of having more complete and better harmonised migration statistics.

17.1. Data revision - policy

To further specify the general Eurostat revision policy, in the area of Asylum statistics a revision policy has been consulted with the Asylum and Managed Migration Working Group in March 2014. This policy is presented in the Annex 4 of the technical guidelines Asylum - Eurostat guidelines to Asylum templates - 2021 onwards.

According to this and following the Eurostat’s revision policy, revisions of asylum statistics are classified in three main types: routine, unscheduled error, and major revisions. As a general rule, the routine revisions shall be delivered with an annual frequency, error revisions can be delivered any time, while major revisions are to be sent with prior notification to Eurostat and are subject of Eurostat's approval.

For more information, please see also in the Eurostat dedicated section on Asylum.

17.2. Data revision - practice

The revision practice generally corresponds to the revision practice of the domain listed under sub‑concept 17.1 (data revision – policy) but can be subject to exceptions.

Reported errors are corrected in the disseminated data as soon as the correct data have been validated.

Whenever new data are provided and validated, the already disseminated data are updated.

Data are usually revised for the last year, four quarters or twelve months. Aggregates and components are revised at the same time. Annual aggregated data are recomputed from monthly or quarterly data.

For the routine revisions the monthly datasets shall be revised once a year(s) covering the period of the previous calendar year and shall be delivered during the period from beginning of January to the end of February of the following year. For the quarterly datasets the routine revisions shall be sent once a year covering the period of the previous calendar year(s); to be delivered during the period from beginning of January to the end of April of the following year. For the annual datasets the routine revisions shall be sent once a year covering the period of the previous calendar year(s) and shall be delivered during the period from beginning of May to the end of September of the following year.

However, in case of specific circumstances (e.g. high inflow of the asylum seekers in a given period, urgent policy or reporting needs), such routine revisions may de facto be accepted more frequently in order to ensure the highest accuracy of the published statistics. In this case these revisions will be published shortly after reception and validation by Eurostat.

Routine revisions are documented and monitored internally, while major revisions including exceptional revisions are communicated in the Metadata files available in dissemination.

Data may be published despite incomplete datasets, with some data missing or flagged as provisional for specific statistics. Such data are replaced with the final versions upon transmission and validation.

The impact of major revisions is analysed in working documents produced for expert meetings held with representatives of the national data providers.

18.1. Source data

Data are compiled from the administrative records of the national authorities, mainly the Ministries of the Interior, related immigration agencies and National Statistical Institutes.

18.2. Frequency of data collection

Decisions on asylum applications and resettlement data are collected on quarterly or annual basis.

Datasets	Data provided by countries	Data calculated by Eurostat
Rejected applicants for international protection at first instance	Quarterly	Annually (sum of quarterly data)
Persons granted refugee status at first instance	Quarterly	Annually (sum of quarterly data)
Persons granted subsidiary protection at first instance	Quarterly	Annually (sum of quarterly data)
Persons granted temporary protection at first instance	Quarterly	Annually (sum of quarterly data)
Persons granted authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons at first instance	Quarterly	Annually (sum of quarterly data)
Withdrawals at first instance	Quarterly	Annually (sum of quarterly data)
Rejected applicants for international protection, final decisions	Annually	Not applicable
Persons granted refugee status, final decisions	Annually	Not applicable
Persons granted subsidiary protection status, final decisions	Annually	Not applicable
Persons granted temporary protection, final decisions	Annually	Not applicable
Persons granted authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons, final decisions	Annually	Not applicable
Withdrawals, final decisions	Annually	Not applicable
Resettled persons	Annually	Not applicable

18.3. Data collection

This data collection is administered by Eurostat. The statistics are collected by the responsible data providers (Ministries of the Interior, related immigration agencies and National Statistical Institutes) and are supplied to Eurostat.

18.4. Data validation

Eurostat performs a set of standardized validation checks before publishing the data. 

The transmission and the delivery of the datasets to Eurostat is managed by EDAMIS, the unique entry point. Statistical data must meet the Statistical Data and Metadata eXchange (SDMX) standard with the CSV data transmission format. 

The validation service infrastructure is built on two components performing validation operations, first structural validation (STRUVAL) checking the structure and organisation of a dataset, and then content validation (CONVAL) checking the content of the statistical files based on a set predefined validation rule. The data provider always receives two validation reports from each data transmission.

Validation rules to ensure internal data consistency:

• variable codes and values of data are from a predefined set of accepted code-lists and format;
• statistics are confronted against other relevant data (e.g. a 'total' value of a given disaggregation (dimension) should equal the sum of the disaggregated data);
• investigating inconsistencies in the statistics;
• analysis of size and sign of revision;
• verifying the statistics against expectations and domain intelligence;
• outlier detection.

Automatically validated data in EDAMIS are forwarded to Eurostat's production system, where they are further validated by data managers using additional validation tools and then finally published on the website of Eurostat.

18.5. Data compilation

Based on the national detailed figures transmitted by the national data providers, Eurostat derives European aggregates and annual aggregations using a common calculation method.

The geographical aggregation is calculated by an arithmetic sum if there are no missing values between the components of the respective geographical aggregate. Otherwise, they are not calculated.

The annual aggregation is calculated by an arithmetical sum if there are no quarterly values missing between the components of the respective annual total. Otherwise, they are not calculated.

18.6. Adjustment

Data are rounded to the nearest 5.

Due to the rounding, the sum of individual cells may not necessarily match the given total.

Metadata is continuously updated.

migr_asyapp_esms - Applications

Asylum - Eurostat guidelines to Asylum templates - 2021 onwards

National reference metadata, produced by countries and released by Eurostat, are available in the European reference metadata for asylum applications. Applications (migr_asyapp)

Data series on decisions on asylum applications and resettlement contain statistical information based on Article 4 of the Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 with reference to:

• Persons covered by first instance decisions rejecting applications for international protection by age, sex, citizenship and status of minors;
• Persons covered by first instance decisions granting, revoking, ending or refusing to renew refugee status by age, sex, citizenship and status of minors;
• Persons covered by first instance decisions granting, revoking, ending or refusing to renew subsidiary protection status by age, sex, citizenship and status of minors;
• Persons covered by first instance decisions granting or withdrawing temporary protection by age, sex, citizenship and status of minors;
• Persons covered by other first instance decisions granting or withdrawing authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons by age, sex, citizenship and status of minors;
• Persons covered by final decisions rejecting applications for international protection by age, sex, citizenship and status of minors;
• Persons covered by final decisions granting, revoking, ending or refusing to renew refugee status by age, sex, citizenship and status of minors;
• Persons covered by final decisions granting, revoking, ending or refusing to renew subsidiary protection status by age, sex, citizenship and status of minors;
• Persons covered by final decisions granting or withdrawing temporary protection by age, sex, citizenship and status of minors;
• Persons covered by other final decisions, taken in appeal or review, granting or withdrawing authorisations to stay for humanitarian reasons by age, sex, citizenship and status of minors;
• Persons who have been granted an authorisation to reside in a Member State within the framework of a national or Community resettlement scheme by age, sex, citizenship, status of minors, country of previous residence and type of decision.

Data are presented by country and aggregation for the European Union.

Data are rounded to the nearest 5.

10 February 2025

Statistical concepts and definitions for decisions on asylum applications and resettlement are based on definitions in Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007, Article 2 of Directive 2011/95/EU and Directive 2013/32/EU.

First instance decision is a positive or negative decision considering applications for international protection as well as the grants of authorisations to stay for humanitarian reasons, including decisions under priority and accelerated procedures taken by administrative or judicial bodies in Member States.

Final decision is a positive or negative decisions considering applications for international protection as well as the grants of authorisations to stay for humanitarian reasons, including decisions under priority and accelerated procedures, in appeal or in review and which are no longer subject to remedy, taken by administrative or judicial bodies in Member States.

Concepts	Definition
Rejected applicants for international protection at first instance	Persons covered by first instance decisions rejecting applications for international protection, such as decisions considering applications as inadmissible or as unfounded and decisions under priority and accelerated procedures, taken by administrative or judicial bodies during the reference period.
Persons granted refugee status at first instance	Persons covered by first instance decisions granting refugee status, taken by administrative or judicial bodies during the reference period.
Persons granted subsidiary protection at first instance	Persons covered by first instance decisions granting subsidiary protection status, taken by administrative or judicial bodies during the reference period.
Persons granted temporary protection at first instance	Persons covered by first instance decisions granting temporary protection, taken by administrative or judicial bodies during the reference period.
Persons granted authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons at first instance	Persons covered by other first instance decisions granting authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons under national law concerning international protection, taken by administrative or judicial bodies during the reference period.
Withdrawals at first instance	Persons covered by first instance decisions withdrawing refugee status, subsidiary protection status, temporary protection or authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons under national law concerning international protection status, taken by administrative or judicial bodies during the reference period.
Rejected applicants for international protection, final decisions	Persons covered by final decisions rejecting applications for international protection, such as decisions considering applications as inadmissible or as unfounded and decisions under priority and accelerated procedures, taken by administrative or judicial bodies in appeal or review during the reference period.
Persons granted refugee status, final decisions	Persons covered by final decisions granting refugee status taken by administrative or judicial bodies in appeal or review during the reference period.
Persons granted subsidiary protection status, final decisions	Persons covered by final decisions granting subsidiary protection status taken by administrative or judicial bodies in appeal or review during the reference period.
Persons granted temporary protection, final decisions	Persons covered by final decisions granting temporary protection taken by administrative or judicial bodies in appeal or review during the reference period.
Persons granted authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons, final decisions	Persons covered by other final decisions, taken by administrative or judicial bodies in appeal or review, granting authorisations to stay for humanitarian reasons under national law concerning international protection during the reference period.
Withdrawals, final decisions	Persons covered by final decisions withdrawing refugee status, subsidiary protection status, temporary protection or granting authorisations to stay for humanitarian reasons under national law concerning international protection, taken by administrative or judicial bodies in appeal or review during the reference period.
Resettled persons	Persons who have been granted an authorisation to reside in a Member State within the framework of a national or Community resettlement scheme during the reference period, where such a scheme is implemented in that Member State.

All data explicitly refer to the number of persons.

Statistical population for decisions on asylum applications and resettlement are third-country nationals, i.e. any person who is not a citizen of the European Union within the meaning of Article 17(1) of the Treaty, including stateless persons.

EU Member States, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, Montenegro.

Croatia from January 2012.

Montenegro from January 2018.

United Kingdom until November 2020.

Calendar quarter and calendar year.

The accuracy of statistical outputs in the general statistical sense is the degree of closeness of estimates to the true values.

The overall assessment of the accuracy of the data collection is considered to be high.

The asylum data are collected mainly through national administrative sources (registers in Ministries of the Interior, related immigration agencies and National Statistical Institutes).

Main sources of errors are:

• differences in definitions by not recording a certain information, which may thus lead to over or under coverage of the target population, or
• errors in the administrative register system (less often, mainly of technical nature).

EU aggregate is calculated as the sum of data from all Member States. It may be overestimated because of a certain risk that the same third-country national could apply for asylum in other Member States during the same reference period. While such risk is limited for high frequency quarterly data, annual aggregates at the EU level (based on quarterly statistics) can be possibly more affected by such double counting.

The following table describes the accuracy of data from 2008.

Datasets	Accuracy
Rejected applicants for international protection at first instance	IE (Q1 2017 break in time series), PT (Q1 2024 break in time series)
Persons granted refugee status at first instance	PT (Q1 2024 break in time series)
Persons granted subsidiary protection at first instance	PT (Q1 2024 break in time series)
Persons granted temporary protection at first instance	No comments
Persons granted authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons at first instance	No comments
Withdrawals at first instance	No comments
Rejected applicants for international protection, final decisions	No comments
Persons granted refugee status, final decisions	No comments
Persons granted subsidiary protection status, final decisions	No comments
Persons granted temporary protection, final decisions	No comments
Persons granted authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons, final decisions	No comments
Withdrawals, final decisions	No comments
Resettled persons	FI (2021 break in time series), IT (2021, 2022, 2023 definition differs)

Number of persons.

Based on the national detailed figures transmitted by the national data providers, Eurostat derives European aggregates and annual aggregations using a common calculation method.

The geographical aggregation is calculated by an arithmetic sum if there are no missing values between the components of the respective geographical aggregate. Otherwise, they are not calculated.

The annual aggregation is calculated by an arithmetical sum if there are no quarterly values missing between the components of the respective annual total. Otherwise, they are not calculated.

Data are compiled from the administrative records of the national authorities, mainly the Ministries of the Interior, related immigration agencies and National Statistical Institutes.

Data is disseminated continuously. 

Depending on the data periodicity, the data is provided to Eurostat by the reporting countries:

• Quarterly data: not later than 2 months after the end of the reference period,
• Annual data: not later than 3 months after the end of the reference period. 

Generally, data are released by Eurostat on the public online database approximately 3 working days immediately after their reception (given that they do not contain any errors). In exceptional cases (large revisions, further validation, technical reasons, etc.) data may be disseminated later than 3 working days.

The geographical comparability across countries may be affected by the fact that in some cases an applicant may submit a request in more than one country during the same reference period. 

The comparability over time of asylum applicants is affected by updates of requested statistics.

1. Period January 1985 – December 2007: data collected on the voluntary basis.
2. Period January 2008 – December 2014: data by Regulation (EC) No 862/2007.
3. Period January 2014 – December 2020: implementation of the new 2013 Asylum Guidelines.
4. Period from January 2021: implementation of the new 2021 Asylum Guidelines.