In January 2025, 66,800 first-time asylum applicants (non-EU citizens) applied for international protection in EU countries, marking an 8% increase compared with December 2024 (62 075) and a 24% decrease compared with January 2024 (87 890).
There were also 8,080 subsequent applicants, representing a 23% increase compared with December 2024 (6 560) and a 9% increase compared with January 2024 (7 385).
This information comes from the monthly asylum data published by Eurostat.
Source dataset: migr_asyappctzm
Venezuelans were the largest group of asylum seekers
In January 2025, Venezuelans became the largest group of people seeking asylum (8,325 first-time applicants), replacing Syrians who were the largest group since May 2022. Syrian nationals (7,055) and Afghans (5,635) followed.
Germany, Spain, France, Italy and Greece received 84% of first-time applicants
Germany (14,920), Spain (13,225), France (11,895), Italy (10,905) and Greece (5,200) received the highest number of first-time asylum applicants, accounting for 84% of all first-time applicants in the EU.
The EU total rate of first-time asylum applicants in January 2025 was 14.9 per hundred thousand people. Compared with the population of each EU country (on 1 January 2024), the highest rates of first-time applicants were recorded in Greece (50.0), ahead of Luxembourg (27.7) and Spain (27.2).
2,145 unaccompanied minors applied for asylum
Source dataset: migr_asyumactm
In January 2025, a total of 2 145 unaccompanied minors applied for asylum for the first time in the EU, most of them coming from Egypt (380), Syria (360) and Afghanistan (300).
The EU country that received the highest number of asylum applications from unaccompanied minors was Germany (620), followed by Greece (460) and Spain (355).
For more information
- Statistics Explained article on asylum applications – monthly statistics
- Statistics Explained article on asylum applications – annual statistics
- Thematic section on migration and asylum statistics
- Database on asylum statistics
- Migration and asylum in Europe – 2024 edition
Methodological notes
- Cyprus: due to temporary derogations, data on subsequent applicants are not available until December 2023, therefore Cyprus is not included in the total calculated until December 2023.
- Poland: data for unaccompanied minors are not available.
- Portugal: data for December 2024 and January 2025 on first-time asylum applicants are estimates based on data on total asylum applicants available for December 2024.