Asylum and migration in the EU: facts and figures
Find out recent data about the number of people coming to the EU and the asylum applications that EU countries are processing.
Migration in Europe: key numbers in 2023
3.7 million legal migrants
Most of the people arrive in Europe for work- or family-related reasons. Those who enter the EU irregularly make up a small fraction of all migrants: in 2023, there were about 385,000 irregular migrants while more than 3.7 million people used legal channels of migration.
Over one million asylum seekers
Seeking asylum is another reason why people may choose to come to Europe, with 2023 seeing more than one million applications across the EU. The number of recognised refugees in Europe stood at less than 10% of the entire world’s refugee population at the end of 2021. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 saw this number rise to around 20%.
Non-EU citizens are 6% of EU population
As of 2023, non-EU citizens make up 6% of the EU’s total population. There are countries outside the EU, such as Switzerland, Australia and Iceland, that have a much larger proportion of foreign-born residents.
The return of non-EU citizens without permission to stay is a priority when it comes to migration management at EU and national level.
Definitions: what are migrants, asylum seekers and refugees?
What is a migrant?
Migrants are people who move from their usual home, either within their own country or to another country, for a short or long time, and for different reasons. While there is no single internationally accepted definition, the term is normally used to cover people in a wide range of situations.
What is an asylum seeker?
Asylum seekers are people with a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, politics or membership of a particular social group who seek safety elsewhere. Their application for international protection either has not yet been processed, or they may not yet have formally requested asylum but they intend to do so. They receive a refugee status or a different form of international protection only once a positive decision has been made by national authorities on their asylum application.
What is a refugee?
Refugees are people who have had their asylum application accepted and have been officially recognised in their host country.
Data on asylum seekers in the EU
In 2023, there were 1,129,640 applications for asylum - 18% more than in 2022 and the highest level since 2016 .
Most applicants request asylum for the first time
The number of first-time asylum applicants in the EU in 2023 accounted for the majority of asylum applications, standing at 1,048,880, an increase of 20.1% from the year before (873,680). A first-time applicant for international protection is a person who lodged an application for asylum for the first time in a given EU country. This excludes repeat applicants in that country.
First-time applicants by EU country
The country that registered the most first-time applicants in 2023 was Germany, which accounted for 31.4% of all first-time asylum applicants in the EU. It was followed by Spain (15.3 %), France (13.8%) and Italy (12.4%). The lowest numbers of first-time asylum applicants were observed in Hungary (30 applicants), Slovakia (370), Malta (490) and Lithuania (510).
The countries that saw the largest relative increases of first-time applicants in 2023 were Latvia (+198.2%), Greece (+98.8%) and Italy (+69.1%).
Country of origin of asylum seekers
Syrians, Afghans, Turks, Venezuelans and Colombians lodged the most applications for asylum, totalling a combined figure of almost half (48%) of all first-time asylum applicants in 2023.
Syrians have made up the largest group of asylum seekers in the EU every year since 2013. The number of first-time asylum applicants from Syria increased from 131,790 in 2022 to 183,035 the following year. They accounted for 17.5% of the total first-time applicants, up from 15.1% in 2022.
Afghans made up 9.6% of the EU's total of first-time applicants. Applicants from Türkiye represented 8.6%, while the total number of first-time applicants from Venezuela and Colombia represented 6,4% and 5.9% respectively.
Data on refugees in the EU
Refugees make up 1.5% of the EU’s total population.
In 2023, a total of 865,655 asylum decisions were issued, marking a 7% increase compared to 2022. Decisions made at first instance resulted in 358,235 people being granted protection status, while another 51,250 people received a protection status after an appeal or review.
Germany granted the highest number of protection requests in 2023 (37% of the EU total), followed by France and Spain, who both issued 13% of the EU total. The largest group who obtained protection status in the EU were Syrians (32%), followed by Afghans (18%) and Venezuelans (10%). Ukrainians made up 3%.
Migrants from Ukraine
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has resulted in millions of people being forced to flee their homes. There have been over 40.5 million border crossings from Ukraine since the start of the war, according to UNHCR, the United Nations' refugee agency.
Germany and Poland have welcomed the largest number of Ukrainian refugees since February 2022.
Since 4 March 2022, Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion were granted temporary protection after the EU activated the Temporary Protection Directive. This is an exceptional measure in the event of a mass influx or imminent mass influx of displaced people from non-EU countries who are unable to return to their country of origin.
Irregular border crossings into the EU
In 2015 and 2016, at the peak of the migration crisis, more than 2.3 million irregular crossings were detected. The total number of illegal crossings at the EU’s external border in 2023 was 380,000 - a 17% increase from the previous year and the highest level since 2016. The number of detected crossings increased on all the irregular migration routes.
The Central Mediterranean route was the most frequently used path into the EU, accounting for two out of every five irregular crossings (41%) in 2023, followed by the Western Balkans (26%) and Eastern Mediterranean (16%).
EU funding for migration
Migration has been an EU priority for years. Several measures have been taken to manage migration flows as well as to improve the asylum system.
The EU significantly increased its funding for migration, asylum and integration policies in the wake of the increased inflow of asylum seekers in 2015. €22.7 billion is reserved for migration and border management in the EU’s budget for 2021-2027, compared with €10 billion for migration and asylum in 2014-2020.
Refugees around the world
Around the world, the number of people fleeing persecution, conflict and violence has reached 122.6 million. Children account for 40% of the world’s refugee population.
The countries hosting the largest number of refugees are Iran, Türkiye, Colombia, Germany and Uganda. Some 71% of the world’s refugee population are hosted in low- and middle-income countries.
