According to the latest figures published by Eurostat, the number of asylum applicants rose in 2011 to 301,000. In 2010, there were 259,000 asylum applicants. The main countries of citizenship of these applicants were Afghanistan, Russia, Pakistan, Iraq and Serbia, and the highest number of applicants recorded in France, Germany and Italy.

Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, has published the figures with regard to the asylum requested carried out in the EU along 2011. The number of asylum applicants registered in the EU rose to 301,000 in 2011. It is estimated that around 90% of these were new applicants and around 10% were repeat applicants. In 2010, there were 259,000 asylum applicants.

On the other hand, three quarters of first instance decisions were rejections. In particular, there were 177,900 rejections (75% of decisions), 29,000 applicants (12%) were granted refugee status, 21,400 (9%) subsidiary protection and 9,100 (4%) authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons. In 2011, the main countries of citizenship of these applicants were Afghanistan (28,000 or 9% of the total number of applicants), Russia (18,200 or 6%), Pakistan (15,700 or 5%), Iraq (15,200 or 5%) and Serbia (13,900 or 5%).

In addition, in 2011 the highest number of applicants was registered in France (56,300 applicants), followed by Germany (53,300), Italy (34,100), Belgium (31,900), Sweden (29,700), the United Kingdom (26,400), the Netherlands (14,600), Austria (14,400), Greece (9,300) and Poland (6,900). These ten Member States accounted for more than 90% of applicants registered in the EU in 2011. In some Member States, a large proportion of the applicants came from a single country, such as Poland were 63% of the applicants came from Russia or Luxembourg were 44% came from Serbia.