In October 2022, 99 175 first-time asylum applicants (non-EU citizens) applied for international protection in the EU Member States, 8630 more people than in the previous month, an increase of 10%. Compared with October 2021 (59870), there was a 66 % increase in the total number of requests.
When it comes to the number of subsequent applicants (people who reapplied for asylum after a decision had been taken on a previous application), the opposite happened, with total numbers decreasing. In October 2022, there were 6380 subsequent applicants, indicating a 3 % decrease (-185 subsequent applicants) compared with September 2022. Compared with October 2021, there was a 5 % drop.
This information comes from monthly asylum data published by Eurostat today. The article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article on monthly asylum statistics.
Most first-time asylum applicants were Syrians
Like in the previous two months, in October 2022, Syrians were the largest group of persons seeking asylum (18420 first-time applicants). They were followed by Afghans (13695) and Turks (6770).
Following Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, there was a large increase in Ukrainian first-time asylum applicants (from 2370 in February to 12890 in March 2022), but the numbers then decreased month by month, from 1510 in April to 950 in October 2022. This is also because people fleeing Ukraine benefit from temporary protection.
Germany continues to report the highest number of first-time asylum applicants
Since the beginning of 2022, Germany has been the Member State reporting the highest number of first-time asylum applicants in the EU. In October 2022, Germany received 24910 first-time applicants, accounting for 25 % of the total. Germany was followed by Austria (17745, 18 %), France (13680, 14 %), Spain (10905, 11 %), and Italy (8385, 8 %).
These five countries together accounted for three-quarters (76 %) of all first-time asylum applicants in the EU.
In total, in the EU as a whole, there were 222 first-time asylum applicants per million population in October 2022.
Compared with the population of each EU country (on 1st January 2022), the highest rate of registered first-time applicants in October 2022 was recorded in Austria (1976 applicants per million population), followed by Cyprus (1819) and Croatia (505). By contrast, the lowest rate was observed in Hungary (0.3).
5225 unaccompanied minors applying for asylum
In October 2022, 5225 unaccompanied minors applied for asylum for the first time in the EU, up by 6 % compared with September 2022 (4950).
Most unaccompanied minors who lodged asylum applications in October 2022 came from Afghanistan (2315), Syria (1440), Somalia (210), Türkiye (140) and Eritrea (135).
The EU countries that received the highest numbers of asylum applications from unaccompanied minors in October 2022 were again Austria (2055), Germany (800), the Netherlands (590), Belgium (530) and Bulgaria (445). All these five countries saw the number of requests increase except for Austria, which saw a marginal decrease (-15 requests).
For more information:
- Statistics Explained article on monthly asylum statistics
- Statistics Explained article on annual asylum statistics
- News article on Ukrainians granted temporary protection in November
- Thematic section on migration and asylum statistics
- Database on asylum statistics
Methodological information:
- Due to temporary derogations, data on subsequent applicants are not available for Denmark, Cyprus and Sweden, and on unaccompanied minor asylum applicants for France, Cyprus and Poland. As a result, these Member States were not included in the calculation of the respective EU totals. A complete list of such derogations is provided in the Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/431.
- France, Cyprus and Poland: due to temporary derogations, data on unaccompanied minor asylum applicants are not available. As a result, these Member States were not included in the calculation of the top 5 citizenships.
- Statistics on asylum applicants considered to be unaccompanied minors presented in the article refer to the age accepted by the national authorities, however before the age assessment procedure was carried out/completed.