Refugee populations in Europe from past conflicts

CReAM research team: last updated 2022-04-01

We document the distribution of existing refugees across European countries prior to the current movements.

Headline statistics:

As of 2020 there were 3.85 million refugees living in Europe, up from 1.89 million in 2010.
Germany hosted 38% of all refugees in 2020, more than any other country.
The share of refugees in Europe in 2020 was 5.15 per 1000 population, most densely concentrated in the North and West.
The average share of refugees in 2020 was lower in Eastern Europe at 0.36 per 1000, compared to 8.25 in the remainder of Europe.

We define Europe and Eastern Europe following the UN geoscheme. The Eastern European countries for which we have data include Belarus, Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine. The European countries for which we have data include these, as well as the EEA (except the Republic of Cyprus), Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Monaco, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. We use the term refugee as shorthand for both refugees and asylum seekers as defined by the UNHRC.

Where do refugees and asylum seekers in Europe live?

Distribution of refugees and asylum seekers across Europe

Figure 1: Refugees and asylum seekers per 1000 population

Sources and technical notes: United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2020). International Migrant Stock 2020. NA refers to countries outside Europe or countries for which we do not have data.

Country	Refugees (2020)	Refugees per 1000 pop. (2020)	Refugees (2010)	Refugees per 1000 pop. (2010)	Absolute change	Change per 1000 pop.
Germany	1,455,947	17.38	646,260	8.00	809,687	9.38
France	510,080	7.81	249,263	3.96	260,817	3.85
Sweden	281,869	27.91	101,264	10.78	180,605	17.13
Italy	254,665	4.21	60,473	1.02	194,192	3.19
United Kingdom	195,062	2.87	253,030	3.99	-57,968	-1.12
Spain	190,791	4.08	6,532	0.14	184,259	3.94
Greece	186,166	17.86	57,168	5.25	128,998	12.61
Austria	162,680	18.06	68,255	8.12	94,425	9.94
Switzerland	121,368	14.02	61,729	7.91	59,639	6.11
Netherlands	110,052	6.42	88,014	5.28	22,038	1.14

Table 1: Countries hosting the largest number of refugees in 2020

Sources and technical notes: United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2020). International Migrant Stock 2020. Changes are between 2010 and 2020.

In 2020 there were 3.85 million refugees living in Europe, which corresponds to 5.15 refugees per 1000 population. These refugees were not evenly spread across countries, with the majority located in high-income Western European countries. Germany hosted the largest total number of refugees, 1.46 million (or 17.38 per 1000 population), equivalent to 38% of the total number of refugees in Europe and nearly three times as many as the second largest recipient of refugees, France. Malta had the highest number of refugees per 1000 population at 28.54 (corresponding to a total of 7,431), while Germany ranks 5th in this measure, with 17.38 refugees per 1000.

Common across both measures was the relatively small share of refugees in Eastern Europe. There were 0.36 refugees per 1000 population in Eastern Europe in 2020, compared to 8.25 in the remainder of Europe. Eastern European countries also hosted a relatively small absolute number of refugees compared to the remainder of Europe.

How has the distribution of refugees changed?

Change in distribution of refugees and asylum seekers across Europe

Figure 2: Decennial Change in Refugees and Asylum Seekers per 1000 Population

Sources and technical notes: United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2020). International Migrant Stock 2020. NA refers to countries not in our definition of Europe or countries with non-reported refugee stocks.

The total number of refugees in Europe doubled from 1.89 to 3.85 million between 2010 and 2020. Of the ten countries with the highest refugee share in 2010, the UK (ranked 2nd to Germany) was the only country to experience a net decline in the stock of refugees (23%).

The doubling of refugees in Europe between 2010 and 2020 was reflected in an increase of 2.59 of the number of refugees per 1000 population. This increase was unequally distributed across countries. The largest increase in refugees per 1000 population took place in Sweden, where this quantity increased by 17.13 (reflecting an influx of 180,000 refugees), followed by Greece and Malta with increases of 12.61 and 10.60 refugees per 1000 population respectively. Only eight of the countries for which we have data experienced a decline in refugees as a share of the population, these including the United Kingdom and Norway (-1.12 and -0.57 per 1000 respectively). Much of the change between 2010 and 2020 reflects the impact of the 2015 European Migrant Crisis.

A final trend apparent from Figure 2 is that the number of refugees per capita did not substantially increase in Eastern Europe between 2010 and 2020. The growth rate of refugees per capita and absolute number of refugees was much lower in Eastern Europe than the rest of Europe over this period.

References

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2020). International Migrant Stock 2020.

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