Temporary protection for persons fleeing Ukraine - monthly statistics

Data extracted on 4 February 2026

Planned article update: 10 March 2026

Highlights

On 31 December 2025, 4.35 million non-EU citizens, who fled Ukraine as a consequence of Russia's war of aggression, were under temporary protection in the EU.

In 2025, EU countries issued 683 395 new decisions providing temporary protection, a decline of 16.3% compared to 2024.

At the end of December 2025, the ratio of temporary protection beneficiaries from Ukraine relative to the population was the highest in Czechia (36.0 per 1 000 people), ahead of Poland (26.6) and Cyprus and Slovakia (both 25.8).

Source: Eurostat (migr_asytpsm), (migr_asytpspop), (demo_gind)

On 4 March 2022, the European Council unanimously adopted an implementing decision introducing temporary protection for people fleeing Ukraine as a consequence of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine that began on 24 February 2022. On 13 June 2025, the Council extended temporary protection until 4 March 2027. Temporary protection is an exceptional measure to provide immediate and temporary protection to displaced people from non-EU countries and those unable to return to their country of origin. It applies when there is a risk that the standard asylum system will struggle to cope with demands stemming from a mass inflow, risking a negative impact on the processing of claims. This article presents the main developments for December 2025.

Where in the EU do people fleeing Ukraine go?

At the end of December 2025, the EU countries hosting the highest number of beneficiaries of temporary protection from Ukraine were Germany (1 250 620 people; 28.7% of the EU total), Poland (969 240; 22.3%) and Czechia (393 055; 9.0%). The number of people under temporary protection relative to the EU population was 9.7 per 1 000 people at the end of December 2025. Among the EU countries, the highest ratios were observed in Czechia (36.0 per 1 000 people), ahead of Poland (26.6) and Cyprus and Slovakia (both 25.8).

Compared with the end of November 2025, the number of people from Ukraine under temporary protection at the end of December increased by 24 675 across the EU (+0.6%). Among the 26 EU countries with available data, this number increased in 22 EU countries, with the 3 largest absolute increases observed in Germany (+9 620; +0.8%), Spain (+2 235; +0.9%) and Romania (+2 160; +1.1%). Among the 4 EU countries that registered decreases, the highest decreases were observed in France (-1 250; -2.4%) and Estonia (-470; -1.3%).

Map 1: Non-EU citizens who fled Ukraine and were under temporary protection at the end of December 2025
Source: Eurostat (migr_asytpsm), (migr_asytpspop), (demo_gind)

Interactive Figure 1 shows the number of people under temporary protection as well as the ratio per 1 000 people and the share in percentage of the EU total.

Figure 1

Who are the people fleeing Ukraine and receiving temporary protection?

98.4% of the people who had fled Ukraine and were under temporary protection in the EU at the end of December 2025 were Ukrainian. Among other non-EU citizens under temporary protection, the main countries of citizenship were Russia (12 290; 0.3%), Nigeria (4 822; 0.1%) and Azerbaijan (4 327; 0.1%).

At the end of December 2025, adult women made up 43.6% of the people under temporary protection, 54.2% of them were aged 35 to 64 years. Minors represented almost one third (30.5%), while adult men accounted for slightly more than a quarter (25.9%). The proportions of boys and girls under the age of 18 years were 16.2% and 14.4% respectively (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Structure of beneficiaries of temporary protection by age and sex, end of
December 2025
Source: Eurostat (migr_asytpsm)

On a quarterly basis, the share of temporary protection decisions for minors (17.8%) and adult women (35.3%) dropped by 10.2 and 1.3 percentage points (pp) respectively during Q4 2025 (Figure 3). This marked the lowest quarterly proportion for minors and adult women since the beginning of Russia's war of aggression in February 2022. By contrast, the share of decisions granted to adult men (46.9%; +11.4 pp) reached its highest quarterly level during Q4 2025. These changes come after the adoption by the Ukrainian government at the end of August 2025 of the decree giving men aged 18 to 22 inclusive the right to leave Ukraine without hindrance.

The monthly share of adult men (44.5%) among people granted temporary protection decreased in December 2025 by 2.2 pp in comparison with November 2025. During the same period, the monthly share of adult women (37.2%) grew by 1.2 pp, whereas the share of minors (18.3%) increased by 1.0 pp.

Figure 3: Quarterly and monthly shares of main population groups among people granted temporary protection, EU
Source: Eurostat (migr_asytpfq) (migr_asytpfm)

How many decisions providing temporary protection were issued?

In December 2025, 45 715 new decisions providing temporary protection in the EU were issued, a decrease of 15.2% compared to November 2025. Among the EU countries, 19 countries issued fewer decisions in December compared with November 2025. The 3 largest decreases were observed in Czechia (-2 350), Germany (-1 535) and Poland (-1 500). Seven EU countries issued more decisions in December than in November 2025, with the largest absolute increases being recorded in Romania (+25 055) and Belgium (+105). The number of decisions issued by Latvia remained stable in December 2025.

On a quarterly basis, EU countries issued 187 860 new decisions providing temporary protection during Q4 2025. Compared with Q3 2025, the number of new decisions decreased by 19 850 (-9.6%). Among the EU countries, a decline was observed during Q4 2025 in 16 countries, with the 3 largest absolute decreases being recorded in Poland (-16 360), Czechia (-7 535) and Finland (-1 605). Eleven EU countries issued more decisions providing temporary protection during Q4 2025 than during Q3 2025, with the 3 largest increases recorded in Germany (+4 550), Denmark (+2 610) and Spain (+1 135).

Since the beginning of Russia's war of aggression in February 2022, EU countries have provided temporary protection to almost 6.9 million people fleeing Ukraine. Since March 2022, Poland (2 123 865, 30.9% of the EU total), Germany (1 535 165, 22.4%), and the Czech Republic (739 010, 10.8%) have issued nearly two-thirds (64.1%) of those decisions. In 2025, the number of new decisions providing temporary protection decreased to 683 395 in the EU, a decline of 16.3% in comparison with 2024 (794 845 new decisions) (Table 1). The annual number of new decisions providing temporary protection declined in 21 EU countries in 2025, with the 3 largest absolute decreases being observed in Germany (-54 595; -31.2%), Poland (-13 045; -8.5%) and Romania (-9 695; -35.5%). Only 6 EU countries issued more new decisions providing temporary protection in 2025 than in 2024, with the most notable increases recorded in Denmark (+4 080; +29.8%), Lithuania (+1 405; +11.4%) and Latvia (+965; +13.5%).

Table 1: Number of decisions on temporary protection in EU and EFTA countries
Source: Eurostat (migr_asytpfq), (migr_asytpfm) (migr_asytpfa)

Where did unaccompanied minors fleeing Ukraine go?

Among the EU countries for which data are available, Austria (3 565), the Netherlands (2 110) and Lithuania (1 885) have granted the most temporary protection statuses to unaccompanied minors from Ukraine since March 2022 (Table 2). In relative terms, the highest share of unaccompanied minors in the total number of minors granted temporary protection was recorded in Croatia (15.1%), ahead of Denmark (9.3%) and Austria (7.8%) (Figure 4).

Table 2: Number of unaccompanied minors granted temporary protection
Source: Eurostat (migr_asyumtpfq), (migr_asyumtpfm) (migr_asyumtpfa)

Figure 4: Share of unaccompanied minors in the total number of minors granted temporary protection from March 2022 to December 2025
Source: Eurostat (migr_asyumtpfm),(migr_asyumtpfa), (migr_asytpfq) (migr_asytpfm) (migr_asytpfa)

Source data for tables and graphs

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Data sources

The data used for this publication are provided to Eurostat by the interior and justice ministries or immigration agencies of the EU Member States and EFTA countries. Data on temporary protection are collected monthly on a voluntary basis, whereas the quarterly number of decisions providing temporary protection is collected on a mandatory basis. They are based entirely on relevant administrative sources and supplied in accordance with the provisions of Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 on community statistics on migration and international protection. Statistics on unaccompanied minors presented in the article refer to the age accepted by the national authorities, and generally before the age assessment procedure was carried out/completed due to the data reporting deadline.

Structures by age and by sex have been calculated based on available data while disregarding the unknown category.

Some data are unavailable. This is because the monthly data collection is carried out on a voluntary basis, so the completeness of the data may vary

When renewal of temporary protection status is not automatic, some beneficiaries of temporary protection might be temporarily excluded from the statistics while undergoing renewal.
Deregistration procedure of people under temporary protection varies across countries and can result in large month-to-month decreases in the number of registered beneficiaries if not implemented on a continuous basis.
France: in most cases, minors can stay in France without a permit. Therefore, minors are generally not included in statistics on temporary protection.
France, Italy and Iceland: unaccompanied minors fleeing Ukraine are benefitting from another protection scheme than the European temporary protection status.
Poland: unaccompanied minors arriving in Poland from Ukraine are already into the care of an adult designated by a Polish court before receiving temporary protection and then are considered as accompanied minors.
Spain and Cyprus: the number of unaccompanied minors is assumed to be equal to zero because of the few possible cases and the high level of uncertainty related to the determination of their status.
Hungary: data on temporary protection broken down by age group are not available from March 2022 to December 2024.
Data on the number of people under temporary protection at the end of the month until December 2022 (for the Netherlands), until January 2024 (for Bulgaria), until June 2024 (for Germany) and until May 2025 (Italy) include some people whose temporary protection status was no longer valid and are not comparable with data of the following reference periods.
Iceland: data are not available for August, September, October, November and December 2025.
Luxembourg: data on the number of people under temporary at the end of September, October, November and December 2025 are not available.
The EU aggregates for December 2025 was estimated using the latest available Luxembourgish data on the number of people under temporary protection at the end of August 2025.
Italy: break in time series in June 2025 for the number of people under temporary protection at the end of the month. People who did not show up during the renewal procedure introduced in 2025 were removed in June 2025 from the statistics on the number of people under temporary protection. Late renewals are reintroduced in the statistics only at the date of the renewal. Before June 2025, only people, who explicitly informed Italian authorities about leaving the Italian territory or changing residency status, were removed from the statistics.

Due to the short timeline for the provision of data, figures presented may be subject to future revisions.

Context

In line with the commitment of the European Statistical System to provide relevant and timely official statistics, Eurostat asked EU countries and EFTA countries to transmit voluntary monthly data within 1 month following the end of a reference period and for the first time by the end of April for the reference month March 2022 for the following data series within the framework of Eurostat data collections in the field of Asylum (Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007)

decisions during the reference period granting temporary protection status by age, sex, citizenship and type of minor (flow data)
beneficiaries of temporary protection at the end of the month by age, sex, citizenship and type of minor (stock data)

Temporary protection status and conditions of applications are defined by Council Directive 2001/55/EC of 20 July 2001 whereas Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/382 of 4 March 2022 establishing the existence of a mass influx of displaced people from Ukraine within the meaning of Article 5 of Directive 2001/55/EC is the first one with the effect of introducing temporary protection. These data are supplied to Eurostat by the national Ministries of Interior and related immigration agencies. Official statistics provided to Eurostat may differ from operational data collected under other collection frameworks in the Commission or by European or international agencies like the European Union Asylum Agency or the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) for various reasons including various definitions used, frequencies, deadlines for provision and quality requirements.

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Database

Temporary protection, see:

Decisions granting temporary protection by citizenship, age and sex – quarterly data (migr_asytpfq)
Decisions granting temporary protection by citizenship, age and sex – monthly data (migr_asytpfm)
Beneficiaries of temporary protection at the end of the month by citizenship, age and sex – monthly data (migr_asytpsm)
Decisions granting temporary protection to unaccompanied minors by citizenship, age and sex – quarterly data (migr_asyumtpfq)
Decisions granting temporary protection to unaccompanied minors by citizenship, age and sex – monthly data (migr_asyumtpfm)
Unaccompanied minors benefiting from temporary protection at the end of the month by citizenship, age and sex – monthly data (migr_asyumtpsm)

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