Tracking migration flows to Europe
How many arrive, where from, and how many go back
In the first months of the year the Union recorded far more first-time asylum applications than irregular border crossings. These are two different things, and they need to be read separately.
In 2025, the last year with twelve months of data
The pale lines are irregular border crossings detected by Frontex, by route and declared nationality. The brass lines are actual returns to countries of origin.
Both flows are drawn at the same scale: in 2025 there were 87 returns for every 100 detections. Countries of departure, routes and figures are real; the path drawn between two points is indicative, because no source publishes actual itineraries.
This year so far
The two figures most often quoted when migration is discussed, both covering January–June 2026. They measure different things and must not be added together.
-36% against the same period in 2025 (78,886)
The peak was in 2016: 359,815.
January–June 2026 · Frontex-21% against the same period in 2025 (340,005)
The peak was in 2016: 611,610.
January–June 2026 · EurostatWhy they are not the same thing. People crossing irregularly and people applying for asylum are not the same set, and the two figures do not subtract from one another. Most people applying for asylum in the Union entered through regular channels — on a visa, to study, to work, to join family — and claim protection afterwards. Frontex, moreover, counts crossings, not people. Adding or subtracting the two figures leads to wrong conclusions in both directions.
First-time asylum applications in the European Union, January–June of each year since 2014
People who lodged a first asylum application in one of the 27 countries of the Union. Each point is the sum of January–June, the same months for every year.
The comparison is month-for-month: summing twelve months for past years and January–June for the current one would make the last point fall for calendar reasons, not because of applications. The axis starts at zero.
View the data as a table
| Period | people |
|---|---|
| 2014 | 200,350 |
| 2015 | 391,845 |
| 2016 | 611,610 |
| 2017 | 314,105 |
| 2018 | 278,375 |
| 2019 | 299,235 |
| 2020 | 196,945 |
| 2021 | 200,290 |
| 2022 | 364,930 |
| 2023 | 475,400 |
| 2024 | 467,235 |
| 2025 | 340,005 |
| 2026 | 269,355 |
Irregular border crossings detected in the EU by route, January–July 2026
Crossings detected by Frontex at the Union's external borders, broken down by route.
The two bars are the same period in two different years, on the same scale: they compare with each other and with every other route. The line on the right is the trend over the same months since 2015, and each route has its own scale: it tells you whether that route is rising or falling, not how big it is compared with the others — the bars say that. Frontex counts detections, not people: someone who crosses several times is counted several times.
View the data as a table
| detections | |
|---|---|
| Eastern Mediterranean | 21,240 |
| Central Mediterranean | 16,639 |
| Western Mediterranean | 12,876 |
| Western Balkans | 4,841 |
| West African Atlantic | 4,682 |
| Eastern borders | 3,247 |
| Albania-Greece | 330 |
| Black Sea | 16 |
| Other | 0 |
Where they arrive, country by country
Asylum applications are not distributed like sea arrivals: some countries with no Mediterranean coast receive more of them than the countries of first entry.
January–June 2026 · Eurostat
Where these figures come from
Four official sources, collected automatically every day. When a source changes format or fails to answer, the site keeps the last valid figure online and says so.