EU Asylum Decisions Drop 18% in 2025 as Protection Grants Decline

In 2025 countries in the European Union gave protection status to 361 325 people who seek asylum. According to data from Eurostat, this number is 18 % lower than the total for 2024. For 51 % of those people, the outcome is refugee status. By comparison 25 % receive humanitarian protection and 24 % receive subsidiary protection.

Countries Granting the Most Protection

To compare the figures with the previous year, the total for refugee status is almost the same, as it is only 0.5% lower - but the number for subsidiary protection is 50 % lower and the number for humanitarian protection is 11 % higher. On the list of countries, a small number of states make most of the decisions. Germany is the country that gave protection status to 103 360 individuals, which is 29 % of the total. And Spain gave protection to 76 210 people, which is 21 %, while France gave it to 72 930 people, which is 20 %. Those three countries are responsible for approximately 70 % of all decisions in the EU.

As for the nationalities of the individuals, citizens from Afghanistan are the group that receives protection most often at 27 %. For Venezuelans, the share is 16 %, while Syrians besides Ukrainians are each at 5 %. When looking at all decisions, EU countries issued more than 832 000 first instance decisions and 170 175 final decisions after a review or an appeal.

Recognition Rates

The recognition rate is the percentage of decisions that are positive. In first instance cases, this rate is 39 % and it is 21 % for final decisions. If we look at specific nationalities, Venezuelans are at 92 % & Afghans are at 73 % for positive outcomes at the first stage. With appeal decisions, the rates are 67 % for Syrians and 36 % for Afghans.

Link to Broader EU Asylum Trends

By looking at earlier reports from TheTradable, the findings connect to other data. In 2025 there are 669 400 first time asylum applications in the EU and 13 % of those are from Venezuela.

Because of this data, it is clear that many people apply for asylum but a smaller share of people receive an approval. To summarize the trends, migration flows from Venezuela, Afghanistan or Syria are ongoing. It is also shown by Eurostat that Afghans are the group with the most individuals who have protection next to Venezuelans are the second group.