Top EU Countries by First-Instance Asylum Approvals

Key Takeaways

• Germany approved more asylum applications in first-instance decisions than any other EU country in 2025. It approved 87,395 applications.
• Italy approved the smallest share of first-instance asylum applications among the EU’s five biggest asylum-destination countries, at 30.0%. Germany’s rate was only slightly higher, at 32.0%.
• Germany, Spain, and France together accounted for 68.6% of all first-instance asylum applications approved across the EU in 2025.
• Greece approved 58.5% of the first-instance asylum applications it decided. That was the highest rate among the EU’s five biggest asylum-destination countries.
• Estonia approved 93.2% of the first-instance asylum applications it decided in 2025. Hungary approved 70.0%.
• The first-instance approval-rate gap comes mostly from which nationalities apply in each country. The EU sets shared asylum guidelines, but each country can apply them differently.

EU Countries’ First-Instance Asylum Approval Rates

Stay tuned!

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

Stay tuned!

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

Germany, Spain, and France Approve the Most First-Instance Asylum Applications in the EU

No EU country accepted more first-instance asylum applications than Germany did in 2025. It granted protection to 87,395 asylum seekers. It approved 87,395 applications.

Spain and France followed Germany with the next-highest approval totals.

National authorities across the EU approved 325,935 first-instance asylum applications in 2025. Together, Germany, Spain, and France accounted for 68.6% of all first-instance asylum applications approved across the EU that year:

• Germany: 87,395 applications approved
• Spain: 75,835 applications approved
• France: 60,515 applications approved

Italy and Greece rounded out the EU’s five biggest asylum-destination countries. Italy approved 31,365 first-instance applications. Greece approved 26,735 applications.

The top five asylum-destination countries made up 86.5% of all first-instance asylum applications approved across the EU in 2025.

Germany’s lead comes mostly from deciding far more applications than any other country: 272,800 in 2025, compared with France’s 151,125, the next-highest total. Being the top country by raw application volume says nothing about how easy it is to get approved there.

Greece Approves First-Instance Asylum Applications at Nearly Double Italy’s Rate

Greece approved 58.5% of the first-instance asylum applications it decided in 2025. That was the highest rate among the EU’s five biggest asylum-destination countries. However, Italy approved 30.0% of its first-instance asylum applications.

Italy’s approval rate was the lowest among the EU’s five biggest asylum-destination countries. Spain, France, and Germany fell between Italy’s low and Greece’s high approval rate:

• Spain: 51.1% approval rate
• France: 40.0% approval rate
• Germany: 32.0% approval rate

Approval rates run even higher outside the EU’s five biggest asylum-destination countries:

• Estonia: 93.2% approval rate
• Hungary: 70.0% approval rate

Estonia and Hungary decided very few first-instance asylum applications compared with the EU’s five biggest asylum-destination countries. Hungary decided just 50 first-instance asylum applications in 2025. However, Germany alone decided 272,800 first-instance asylum applications.

Two things drive the approval-rate gap: who applies, and how each country judges the case. National authorities interpret asylum law differently. Each one also decides on its own which countries of origin count as safe.

• Venezuelan applicants make up a large share of Spain’s first-instance asylum applications. Spain accepts nearly all of them through a national humanitarian status separate from refugee status. That pathway is set to end for new applicants in June 2026.
• Bangladeshi applicants made up 21% of Italy’s first-instance asylum applications in 2024. Their EU-wide approval rate was just 4% in 2025, one of the lowest of any nationality. Bangladesh has been approved for a proposed EU safe-country-of-origin list, pending Council adoption. That status presumes applicants don’t need protection.
• Greece approved almost every Afghan application it reviewed in 2025. Germany approved a much smaller share of the same nationality. Shared EU guidance covers Afghan claims, but each country can apply it differently.

The country deciding a first-instance asylum application case matters almost as much as the applicant’s nationality.

Raw acceptance totals and approval rates tell different stories about the same asylum system. Germany accepts the most asylum seekers because it decides the most first-instance asylum applications, not because it is the easiest country to be approved in.

A successful first-instance asylum application depends on both which passport the applicant holds and which EU country reviews it.