Latest Atlas of Migration shows decrease of first asylum applications in the EU while displacement rises worldwide

The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre recently released its latest edition of the Atlas of Migration. This reference book provides a snapshot of global migration trends, and offers a solid knowledge base for policymakers, stakeholders, businesses and the general public, gathering information from many official sources, such as Eurostat, UN agencies, the World Bank and the International Labour Organisation.  

The 2025 Atlas of Migration illustrates the latest migration-related data by country, continent and region, with a particular focus on the EU. This edition deepens its exploration of the links between conflicts and displacement in the context of escalating humanitarian crises and forced displacement driven by violence and systemic instability. 

Key figures and global trends  

In mid-2024, the estimated number of international migrants worldwide was 304 million. This figure has grown steadily since the beginning of the century, at more than double the extent (+75%) compared to that of the world population (+34%).   

In the last twenty years, the global number of refugees has almost tripled. There were 15.3 million refugees in mid-2012 and more than 42.5 million as of mid-2025.  

About 18% of these refugees are in the EU: 7.7 million, including the approximately 4.4 million people displaced from Ukraine. About 22% are displaced in Africa (9.2 million) and twice as many people are displaced in Asia (about 15 million). Yet, in the last five years, the EU saw the highest relative increase in the number of refugees, with +200% compared to +54% in America and about +30% in Africa and Asia.  

Migration to the EU 

The number of new residence permits issued by the EU Member States in 2024 has decreased to 3.5 million from 3.8 million in 2023, interrupting a continuous growth that had lasted for more than ten years, and which had only stopped during the COVID-19 pandemic. About 60% of the new residence permits issued in 2024 were for work and family-related reasons – 32% and 27% respectively.  

In 2024, Spain, Germany and Poland together issued nearly half (1.6 million) of the first residence permits to non-EU citizens in the EU (3.5 million). In relative terms, Malta and Cyprus issued the highest number of new permits with 52 and 42 new permits per thousand inhabitants respectively, against an EU average of eight.  

In 2024, first time asylum applications in the EU decreased by 13%, from more than one million in 2023 to around 913,000 in 2024. The decreasing trend continued in 2025, as the sum of the first-time applications submitted in the first eight months of 2025 (approximatively 449,000) is much lower than that for the same period of 2024 (around 613,000).   

Conflict-related displacement  

The number of forcibly displaced people has risen sharply in the past 15 years. According to the United Nations, over 51 million people were in need of international protection at the end of 2024. The number of armed conflicts has also increased, reaching over 180 in 2024. 

Large scale displacement situations at the global level, including in Myanmar, Palestine, Syria, Sudan, Ukraine and Venezuela, differ across multiple dimensions – from the evolution of displacement patterns over time to the proportion of internal and external displacement relative to population or one another.     

A better understanding of the dynamics and circumstances triggering large scale displacement is key to supporting situational awareness, early warning, anticipation and preparedness actions, and can support EU policy responses across several domains.