Data extracted on 6 May 2025
Planned article update: 10 June 2025
Highlights
On 31 March 2025, slightly more than 4.25 million non-EU citizens, who fled Ukraine as a consequence of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, were under temporary protection in the EU.
At the end of March 2025, the ratio of temporary protection beneficiaries from Ukraine relative to the population was the highest in Czechia (33.5 per 1 000 people), ahead of Poland (27.2) and Latvia (26.4).
During the first quarter of 2025, EU countries recorded the lowest quarterly number of new decisions providing temporary protection (136 780) since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression.
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 25 June 2024, the Council extended temporary protection until 4 March 2026. Temporary protection is an exceptional measure to provide immediate and temporary protection to displaced persons 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 March 2025.
Where in the EU do people fleeing Ukraine go?
At the end of March 2025, the EU countries hosting the highest number of beneficiaries of temporary protection from Ukraine were Germany (1 184 890 people; 27.8% of the EU total), Poland (997 120; 23.4%) and Czechia (365 055; 8.6%). The number of persons under temporary protection relative to the EU population was 9.5 per 1 000 people at the end of March 2025. Among the EU countries, the highest ratios were observed in Czechia (33.5 per 1 000 people), ahead of Poland (27.2) and Latvia (26.4).
Compared with the end of February 2025, the number of persons under temporary protection at the end of March decreased by 45 455 across the EU (-1.1%). A drop was observed in eight EU countries, with the largest decreases recorded in Czechia (-32 695; -8.2%), Sweden (-20 505; -43.2%) and Lithuania (-4 845; -9.9%). These decreases are, at a large extent, explained by temporary protection statuses ending in March 2025 which have not been automatically renewed. Some beneficiaries of temporary protection thus might be temporarily excluded from the statistics while undergoing renewal. The number of persons under temporary protection increased in 18 EU countries with the largest absolute increases observed in Germany (+7 090; +0.6%), Poland (+2 330, +0.2%) and Spain (+2 275; +1.0%).
Source: Eurostat (migr_asytpsm) (migr_asytpspop)
Interactive Figure 1 below shows for EU and EFTA countries the number of persons under temporary protection as well as the ratio per 1 000 people and the share in percentage of the EU total.
Who are the people fleeing Ukraine and receiving temporary protection?
98.4% of the people who fled Ukraine and were under temporary protection in the EU at the end of March 2025 were Ukrainian. Among other non-EU citizens under temporary protection, the main countries of citizenship were Russia (12 471; 0.3%), Nigeria (4 972; 0.1%) and Azerbaijan (4 284; 0.1%).
At the end of March 2025, adult women represented 44.7% of beneficiaries of temporary protection, 54.6% of them were women aged 35 to 64 years. Minors represented 31.7%, while the proportion of adult men in the total number of beneficiaries of temporary protection was 23.6%. The proportions of boys and girls under the age of 18 years were close, with 16.7% for boys and 15.0% for girls (Figure 2).
Source: Eurostat (migr_asytpsm)
On a quarterly basis, the share of temporary protection decisions for adult women decreased to 41.0% during Q1 2025, a drop of 1.6 percentage points (pp) from the 41.6% observed in Q4 2024 (Figure 3). By contrast, the share of decisions granted to minors (26.6%) and adult men (32.4%) in Q1 2025 increased respectively by 1.0 pp and 0.5 pp. This marked the highest quarterly proportion for adult men since the beginning of Russia's war of aggression in February 2022.
In March 2025, the monthly share of adult women among persons granted temporary protection was equal to 41.2%, a 0.6 pp increase compared with February 2025. During the same period, the share of adult men declined by 0.4 pp to 32.3%, whereas the proportion of minors decreased by 0.2 pp to 26.5%.
Source: Eurostat (migr_asytpfm)
How many decisions on temporary protection were issued by EU countries and EFTA countries?
Since the beginning of Russia's war of aggression in February 2022, EU countries have provided temporary protection to 6.3 million persons fleeing Ukraine. In 2024, the number of new decisions providing temporary protection decreased to 780 280 in the EU, a drop of 26.1% in comparison with 2023 (1 056 010 new decisions) (Table 1). The number of new decisions providing temporary protection declined in 22 EU countries in 2024, with the three largest absolute decreases being observed in Germany (-106 400; -31.7%), Poland (-71 710; -30.2%) and Ireland (-22 530; -68.2%). Only five EU countries issued more new decisions providing temporary protection in 2024 than in 2023, with the most notable increases recorded in Spain (+2 800; +8.3%), Denmark (+1 240; +14.2%) and Bulgaria (+985; +4.2%)
During Q1 2025, EU countries issued 136 780 new decisions providing temporary protection. This is the lowest quarterly number of new decisions recorded since the beginning of Russia's war of aggression in February 2022. Compared with Q4 2024, the number of new decisions during Q1 2025 decreased by 20.5%. A decline was observed during Q1 2025 in 20 EU countries, with the three largest absolute decreases being recorded in Germany (-13 220), Poland (-8 580) and Czechia (-3 465). Only six EU countries issued more decisions providing temporary protection during Q4 2024, with the three largest increases recorded in Italy (+1 095), Lithuania (+545) and Cyprus (+445).
In March 2025, 44 335 new decisions providing temporary protection in the EU were issued, marking a 7.0% increase from February 2025, which was representing the lowest monthly number of new decisions recorded since the start of the Russian war of aggression. Among the 26 EU countries having provided data for March 2025, 18 EU countries issued more decisions in March compared with February 2025. The three largest increases were seen in Italy (+1 275), Bulgaria (+680) and Poland (+650). 8 EU countries issued less decisions in March than in February 2025, with the 3 largest decreases observed in Cyprus (-440), Denmark (-405), and Belgium (-290).
Source: Eurostat (migr_asytpfm), (migr_asytpfq)
Where did unaccompanied minors fleeing Ukraine go?
Since March 2022, 22 EU countries and all EFTA countries provided data on unaccompanied minors fleeing from Ukraine.
Of the EU countries for which data are available, Austria (2 600), the Netherlands (1 860) and Lithuania (1 730) have granted the most temporary protection statuses, in absolute terms, to unaccompanied minors 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 (13.7%) ahead of Denmark (7.6%) and Austria (6.2%) (Figure 4).
Source: Eurostat (migr_asytpfm), (migr_asytpfq)
Source: Eurostat (migr_asytpfm), (migr_asytpfq), (migr_asyumtpfm), (migr_asyumtpfq)
Source data for tables and graphs
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 the 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.
- Germany: data on decisions providing temporary protection and on number of beneficiaries at the end of the month are not available from March to July 2022.
- 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 persons under temporary protection at the end of the month until December 2022 (for the Netherlands), until January 2024 (for Bulgaria) and until June 2024 (for Germany) include some persons whose temporary protection status was no longer valid and are not comparable with data of the following reference periods.
- Portugal: data are not available for January, February and March 2025.
- EU totals for January, February and March 2025 calculated by using latest available Portuguese data from December 2024.
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 the 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 the Council implementing decision (EU) 2022/382 of 4 March 2022 establishing the existence of a mass influx of displaced persons 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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Other articles
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)
Thematic section
Publications
Selected datasets
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)