As of January 31, 2025, 4 million 285.61 thousand non-EU citizens who fled Ukraine as a result of the full-scale Russian invasion had temporary protection status in the EU, an increase of 25.53 thousand in January compared to 25.59 thousand in December, Eurostat reports.
“The largest absolute increase in the number of beneficiaries was observed in Germany (+8,800; +0.8%), the Czech Republic (+6,4360; +1.6%) and Spain (+3,050; +1.3%),” the agency said.
It is noted that the number of people under temporary protection in January decreased in Denmark (-2,245; -6.1%), France (-660; -1.1%), Austria (-420; -0.5%) and Lithuania (-155, -0.3%).
According to Eurostat, Germany remains the country with the largest number of refugees from Ukraine in the EU and the world by a growing margin – 1 million 170.25 thousand at the end of 2024, or 27.3% of the total number of beneficiaries in the EU.
The top three also includes Poland – 993.02 thousand, or 23.2%, and the Czech Republic – 394.99 thousand, or 9.2%.
They are followed by Spain (229.67 thousand) and Romania (181.9 thousand) with a significant lag.
There is no data for January for Italy and Portugal, where at the end of 2024 there were 163.10 thousand and 65.29 thousand refugees with this status, respectively. In recent months, Eurostat has also clarified that the data for Spain, Greece, and Cyprus take into account some people whose temporary protection status is no longer valid.
According to the agency, compared to the population of each EU member state, the largest number of temporary protection beneficiaries per thousand people at the end of January 2025 was observed in the Czech Republic (36.2), Poland (27.1) and Estonia (26.0), while the corresponding figure at the EU level is 9.5.
It is also said that as of the end of 2024, Ukrainian citizens accounted for more than 98.4% of the beneficiaries of temporary protection. Adult women accounted for almost half (44.8%) of temporary protection beneficiaries in the EU, children for almost a third (31.8%), while adult men accounted for less than a quarter (23.4%) of the total. A year earlier, the share of women was 46.1%, children – 33.2% and adult men – 20.7%.
More than 100 thousand people with temporary protection status at the end of January 2025 were also in Slovakia – 132.64 thousand, the Netherlands – 122.21 thousand and Ireland – 110.58 thousand.
Between 50 thousand and 100 thousand of them were in Belgium – 88.29 thousand, Austria – 85.14 thousand, Norway – 79.56 thousand, Finland – 69.98 thousand, Bulgaria – 70.34 thousand, Switzerland – 68.40 thousand and France – 57.87 thousand (data on children are mostly not included – Eurostat).
This is followed by Latvia – 48.54 thousand people, Lithuania – 48.10 thousand, Sweden – 47.02 thousand, Hungary – 39.33 thousand, Estonia – 35.72 thousand, Denmark – 34.68 thousand, Greece – 32.81 thousand, Croatia – 26.15 thousand, Cyprus – 22.46 thousand, Luxembourg – 3.94 thousand, Iceland – 3.91 thousand, Malta – 2.24 thousand and Liechtenstein – 0.71 thousand.
Eurostat clarified that all the above data relate to the granting of temporary protection on the basis of EU Council Decision 2022/382 of March 4, 2022, which establishes the existence of a massive influx of displaced persons from Ukraine due to Russia’s military invasion and entails the introduction of temporary protection. On June 25, 2024, the European Council decided to extend temporary protection for these persons from March 4, 2025 to March 4, 2026.
According to updated UNHCR data, the number of Ukrainian refugees in Europe as of February 19, 2025, was estimated at 6.346 million, and 6.907 million worldwide, which is 43 thousand more than on January 16.
In Ukraine itself, according to the latest UN data, 3.665 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), including approximately 160,000 people, were displaced from the frontline areas in the east and south between May and October 2024 due to the intensification of hostilities.
As Deputy Economy Minister Serhiy Sobolev noted in early March 2023, the return of every 100,000 Ukrainians home results in a 0.5% increase in GDP. In its January inflation report, the National Bank estimated the outflow from Ukraine in 2024 at 0.5 million (0.315 million according to the State Border Guard Service). The NBU also maintained its forecast of outflows in 2025 at 0.2 million.
