Temporary protection for persons fleeing Ukraine - monthly statistics

Data extracted on 3 April 2024

Planned article update: 8 May 2024

Highlights

On 29 February 2024, about 4.25 million non-EU citizens, who fled Ukraine as a consequence of the Russian invasion on 24 February 2022, had temporary protection status in EU countries.

The ratio of temporary protection beneficiaries from Ukraine relative to the EU population was 9.4 per thousand people at the end of February 2024. Czechia (35.6), Lithuania (26.5), Poland (26.0), Estonia (25.8) and Latvia (23.6) had the highest ratios.

In February 2024, the number of decisions granting temporary protection (55 980) to non-EU citizens in the EU decreased by 11.1% compared with January 2024.

On 4 March 2022, the European Council unanimously adopted an implementing decision introducing temporary protection for people fleeing Ukraine as a consequence of Russia's invasion. Temporary protection status and conditions of applications are defined by Council Directive 2001/55/EC of 20 July 2001, whereas Council Decision 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 to introduce temporary protection. 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. On 28 September 2023, the European Council agreed to extend the temporary protection for people fleeing from Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine from 4 March 2024 to 4 March 2025.

Full article

Where in the EU did people fleeing Ukraine go?

On 29 February 2024, about 4.25 million non-EU citizens (4 234 595), who had fled Ukraine as a consequence of the Russian invasion in 2022, were under temporary protection in the EU. More than three-fifths (62.1 %) of those beneficiaries of temporary protection in the EU were reported by: Germany (1 286 580 people; 30.4 % of total EU), Poland (957 200; 22.6 %) and Czechia (385 075; 9.1 %). In relative terms, the number of temporary protection beneficiaries relative to the EU population was 9.4 per thousand people at the end of February 2024. Among the EU Member States, the highest ratios were observed in Czechia (35.6), Lithuania (26.5), Poland (26.0), Estonia (25.8) and Latvia (23.6).

Compared with the end of January 2024 and excluding Bulgaria (see methodological notes), the number of beneficiaries increased by 37 735 across the EU (+0.9 %). The highest increases in absolute value were observed in Germany (+16 430 people, +1.3 %), Poland (+5 640, +0.6 %) and Czechia (+3 885, +1.0 %), whereas the number of beneficiaries decreased in 5 EU countries, namely Austria (-1 420 people, -1.7 %), France (-685, -1.1 %), Estonia (-550, -1.5 %), the Netherlands (-120, -0.1 %), and Malta (-20, -1.0 %).

Map 1: Non-EU citizens who fled Ukraine and were under temporary protection in EU Member States and EFTA countries at the end of February 2024
Source: Eurostat (migr_asytpsm) (migr_asytpspop)

Who are the people fleeing Ukraine and receiving temporary protection?

About 98.3 % of the people who fled Ukraine and were under temporary protection in the EU at the end of February 2024 were Ukrainian. Among other non-EU citizens under temporary protection, the three main countries of citizenship were Russia (12 530; 0.30 %), Nigeria (5 308; 0.13 %) and Azerbaijan (4 419; 0.10 %).

At the end of February 2024, adult women represented 46.0 % of beneficiaries of temporary protection, 55 % of them were women aged 35 to 64 years. Children represented 32.9 %, while the proportion of adult men in the total number of beneficiaries of temporary protection was only 21.2 %. By contrast, the proportions of boys and girls of less than 14 years of age and from 14 to 17 years of age were similar (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Structure by age and sex of beneficiaries of temporary protection in the EU, end of February 2024 (%)
Source: Eurostat (migr_asytpsm)

Figure 2 shows that the share of adult women (40.5 %) among persons granted temporary protection during February 2024 dropped by 1.8 percentage points (pp) in comparison with January 2024 while the share of adult men (33.5 %) and children (26.0 %) respectively increased by 1.4 pp and by 0.4 pp. Previously, the share of adult men in quarterly flows followed an upward trend up to the fourth quarter of 2023 (an increase from 7.7 % to 30.4 % between first quarter of 2022 and last quarter of 2023). This is in contrast to the proportion of children which decreased from 46.4 % to 26.0 % over the same period. The quarterly share of adult women followed a less pronounced downward trend with a maximum of 50.1 % reached during the second quarter of 2022 and a minimum of 43.4 % reached during the third quarter of 2023.

Figure 2: Quarterly and monthly shares of main population groups among persons granted temporary protection (%)
Source: Eurostat (migr_asytpfm)

How many decisions on temporary protection were issued by EU Member States and EFTA countries?

In 2023, slightly more than one million of new decisions granting temporary protection (1 056 055) were registered in the EU. About 75 % of the decisions were taken in six countries, namely Germany (335 785, 31.8 % of the EU total), Poland (237 475, 22.5 %), Czechia (98 655, 9.3 %), Romania (49 320, 4.7 %), the Netherlands (34 775, 3.3 %) and Spain (33 915, 3.2 %).

During the fourth quarter of 2023, EU countries issued 202 935 decisions granting temporary protection to people having fled Ukraine. This was the lowest quarterly number of decisions since the beginning of the Russian invasion. Compared with the third quarter of 2023, the number of decisions during the fourth quarter decreased by 21.2 % — 24 EU countries issued less decisions granting temporary protection. In absolute terms, the sharpest declines in the number of decisions during the fourth quarter of 2023 were recorded in Poland (-23 045, -34.8 %), Germany (-8 575, -11.1 %) and Czechia (-7 480, -29.6 %). A rise was observed during the fourth quarter of 2023 in only three countries, namely in Spain (+740, +10.6 %), Portugal (+85, +4.5 %) and Slovenia (+25, +7.1 %).

On a monthly basis, 55 980 new decisions granting temporary protection in the EU were given in February 2024, a decline of 11.1 % in comparison with January 2024. Nineteen EU countries issued less decisions in February 2024 compared to January 2024. The majority of decisions granting temporary protection in February 2024 were recorded in Germany (16 020, -4.0 % compared with January 2024), Poland (11 925, -18.0 %) and Czechia (4 535, -43.4 %) (Table 1).

Table 1: Number of decisions on temporary protection in EU Member States and EFTA countries
Source: Eurostat (migr_asytpfm), (migr_asytpfq)

Where did unaccompanied minors fleeing Ukraine go?

Since March 2022, 18 EU countries and all EFTA countries have provided data on unaccompanied minors fleeing from Ukraine. It should be highlighted that in Italy, unaccompanied minors are benefiting from a protection scheme other than the temporary protection status. In absolute terms, Austria (1 810), Belgium (1 560) and Lithuania (1 470) are the countries among EU countries where data are available that have granted the most temporary protection statuses to unaccompanied minors since March 2022 (Table 2). In relative terms, the highest share of unaccompanied minors of the total number of children granted temporary protection was recorded in Croatia (12.0 %) (Figure 3).

Table 2: Number of unaccompanied minors granted temporary protection
Source: Eurostat (migr_asytpfm), (migr_asytpfq)

Figure 3: Share of unaccompanied minors in the total number of children granted temporary protection between March 2022 and February 2024 (%)
Source: Eurostat (migr_asytpfm), (migr_asytpfq), (migr_asyumtpfm), (migr_asyumtpfq)

Source data for tables and graphs

Temporary protection: tables and figures

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 asylum applications are collected monthly. 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 asylum applicants considered to be 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:

As a result of the delay in renewal of temporary protection statuses in Sweden, the total number of beneficiaries at the end of March, April and May 2023 for Sweden is provisional and may be subject to revision.
Germany: data on decisions granting temporary protection and on number of beneficiaries at the end of the month are not available for March-July 2022. Delays in the registration of flows in Germany may lead to misalignment between flow and stock data.
France: in most cases, minors can stay in France without a permit. Therefore, minors are generally not included in statistics on temporary protection. In March 2023, data were revised since March 2022.
Hungary: data on temporary protection broken down by age group are not available.
Data on the number of persons under temporary protection at the end of the month until September 2023 (for the Netherlands) and until January 2024 (for Bulgaria) include some persons whose temporary protection status was no longer valid and are not comparable with data of the following reference periods.

Due to the short data timeline and limited data sources, figures presented may be subject to future revisions.

Context

In line with the ESS commitment to provide relevant and timely official statistics, Eurostat asked EU countries and EFTA countries to transmit voluntary monthly data within one 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 European Union Asylum Agency (EUAA) or the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) for various reasons including various definitions used, frequencies, deadlines for provision and quality requirements.

Direct access to

Main tables

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)

Database