Refugee crisis: List by country of asylum seeker numbers in EU as applicants exceed 1.2 million

borders — Children sit behind railings as they wait to cross the border at a refugee camp at the Greek-Macedonia border in Idomeni, Greece Dan Kitwood/ Getty Images

In 2015 more than 1.2 million asylum seekers applied in EU member states for protection – the largest number so far. Numbers from Syria applying for asylum doubled amid an explosion of migration to the EU from some of the most war-ravaged countries on earth.

Nearly a third of the first time asylum seekers to arrive in the 28 member states came from Syria. Of the 362,800 Syrians, almost half were registered in Germany, according to Eurostat.

Around 178,200 Afghans arrived in the EU seeking asylum protection for the first time in 2015. Of those, 45,600 applied in Hungary and 41,200 in Sweden.

The third largest number of asylum seekers to arrive in the EU came from Iraq. Of the 121,500 Iraqi applicants the majority were in Germany (29,800), Finland (20,400), and Sweden (20,200).

Although Germany has taken in the largest number of asylum seekers, comparing the population of each EU member state with the number of applicants it receives paints a different picture of the burden placed on that country.

For example, the highest number of registered first time applicants in 2015 was recorded in Hungary (17,699 applicants per million inhabitants), ahead of Sweden (16,016), Austria (9,970), Finland (5,876) and Germany (5,441).

The lowest numbers were recorded in Croatia (34 applicants per million inhabitants), Slovakia (50), Romania (62), Portugal (80) and Lithuania (93). In 2015, there were on average 2,470 first time asylum applicants per million inhabitants in the EU member states.

Below is the full list of origin countries and numbers of asylum seekers applying to EU member states: