(27 March 2018) – In 2017, 650 000 first time asylum seekers applied for international protection in the Member States of the European Union. This was just over half the number recorded in 2016.
Syrian (102 400 first-time applicants), Iraqi (47 500) and Afghan (43 600) continued to be the main citizenships of people seeking international protection in the EU Member States in 2017, together accounting for 30% of all first-time applicants.
With 198 300 first-time applicants registered in 2017, Germany accounted for 31% of all first-time applicants in the EU Member States. It was followed by Italy (126 600, or 20%), France (91 100, or 14%), Greece (57 000, or 9%), the United Kingdom (33 300, or 5%) and Spain (30 400, or 5%).
The highest number of registered first-time applicants in 2017 relative to the population of each Member State was recorded in Greece (5 295 first-time applicants per million population), ahead of Cyprus (5 235), Luxembourg (3 931) and Malta (3 502).