Asylum Applications by Type Across EU Countries

Key Takeaways

• EU-27 countries recorded 798,135 asylum applications in 2025. First-time claims made up 83.9% of all EU-27 applications. Subsequent claims made up the remaining 16%.
• Germany recorded the EU’s highest total asylum applications in 2025. The total reached 168,375. Subsequent claims made up 32.8% of that total. It is the highest share among the EU’s five largest destination countries.
• Spain recorded the EU’s most first-time asylum applications in 2025. The total reached 141,035. Its subsequent applications made up just 1.9% of its overall claims. That is the lowest share among the EU’s five largest destination countries.
• Hungary recorded the EU’s lowest total asylum applications in 2025. The total reached 110. This is because applicants must file a statement of intent at a Hungarian embassy abroad before they can enter the country to seek asylum.
• Sweden recorded the EU’s highest share of subsequent asylum applications in 2025. The share reached 37% of its total. Portugal recorded the lowest share among EU countries with available data, under 1% of its total.
• A subsequent application requires a final decision on an earlier claim. Larger, longer-running asylum systems accumulate more of these decisions. This is why Germany and Sweden show the highest subsequent shares. Spain’s new arrivals stay almost entirely first-time.

EU Countries’ Asylum Applications

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Learn something new about Germany every week and make informed decisions with confidence.

The EU-27 recorded a total of 798,135 asylum applications in 2025. Out of that number, 669,710 were first-time asylum applications. Meanwhile, subsequent applications reached 127,360.

Germany, France, and Spain recorded 463,620 asylum applications in 2025. That is 58% of the EU-27 total. Spain’s caseload is almost entirely first-time claims. Germany includes the EU’s largest pool of subsequent applications.

Germany Records the EU’s Most Total Asylum Applications

Germany recorded the EU’s highest total asylum applications in 2025. The total reached 168,375. Subsequent claims made up 32.8% of that total. It is the highest share among the EU’s five largest destination countries.

Germany has been the EU’s primary asylum destination for most of the past decade. That decade of volume left it with the EU’s largest pool of final decisions.

Spain recorded only 2,660 subsequent applications. That is the fewest among the EU’s five largest destination countries relative to its size. This is because Spain’s first-time surge stems largely from Venezuelan nationals. Venezuelans filed the large majority of their EU asylum claims in Spain in 2025. Most Venezuelans arrived too recently to have received a final decision on an earlier claim, the precondition for a subsequent one.

On the other end, Hungary also recorded the EU’s lowest total asylum applications in 2025. The total reached 110. This is because applicants must file a statement of intent at a Hungarian embassy abroad before they can enter the country to seek asylum.

Sweden Records the EU’s Highest Share of Subsequent Asylum Applications

Subsequent applications made up 37% of Sweden’s total asylum applications in 2025. That is the highest share among EU countries with available data. Sweden received the EU’s highest number of asylum applications per capita during the 2015 migration crisis. That legacy left it with a large stock of final decisions, the precondition for a subsequent claim. Portugal’s subsequent applications made up under 1% of its total. That is the lowest share among EU countries with available data.

The type breakdown reveals what a country’s total asylum number alone cannot. A high subsequent share points to a system processing a backlog of repeat claims. A low subsequent share points to a system absorbing new arrivals before repeat claims build up. The same total can hide either pattern.