The main statistical findings of this asylum quarterly report are:

Increase in number of asylum applicants

The number of asylum applicants increased by almost 50 % in the third quarter of 2014 compared with the same quarter of the previous year. Overall, they were 177 000 asylum seekers in the third quarter of 2014.

Main countries of origin and destination

• Syrians, Eritreans and Afghans were the top 3 citizenships of asylum seekers.
• Germany, Sweden, Italy, France and the United Kingdom reported the largest numbers of asylum seekers in the third quarter of 2014.

First instance decisions: almost half of positive decisions

• 85 700 first instance decisions were made by the national authorities of EU Member States during the third quarter of 2014. Among them, 48 % were positive.
• Syrians have received by far the highest number of protection statuses in the EU (16 300), followed by Eritreans (4 600) and Afghans (3 200)

Read the full Eurostat statistics and report here.