The number of people seeking asylum in the EU surpassed 1 million applications in the 11 months to the end of November according to new figures released by Eurostat.

However, the true figure will prove higher given that, among the 28 countries of the EU, Finland is the only country to have provided figures for November to date.

The number of registered asylum applications is already 60% higher than in the full-year in 2014 and a multiple of that recorded in previous years. The average number of asylum applications in the five years to the end of 2013 stood at just under 320,000. The number of asylum applications in 2015 to date is more than three times that.



Of the 1,001,910 applications registered in the EU in the year to date 94% were first time applicants. Syrian asylum seekers accounted for a quarter of applications, while 12% related to Afghanistan and 9% to Iraq.

Among the EU countries Germany has received by far the highest number of refugee claims: up to October, the last month for which figures are recorded, Germany had received more than 340,000 asylum applications, or over a third of those recorded in the EU so far this year.

Hungary was second with almost 18% of all applications or more than 175,000 in total. However, its monthly total collapsed between September and October from more than 31,000 applications to just 615 after the country closed its border with Serbia and later Croatia.

Sweden had received more than 112,000 claims for asylum by the end of October or 11% of the 2015 total. The UK had 27,000 applications in the same time period, less than 3% of all asylum claims registered in the EU since the year began.

Eurostat also provides figures for four non-EU states: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Norway. A further 60,000 people have sought asylum in these four countries so far this year. However, the true figure will again prove to be higher as Norway is the only country to have so far reported to Eurostat in November having received 8,155 in that month alone.

The previous record for the number of asylum applications received by EU member states was in 1992 after the breakup of Yugoslavia when 672,025 asylum applications were received in the full-year period.

Correction: this article was amended on 15 December 2015 to correct the combined number of people who had sought asylum in Iceland, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Norway. The actual figure is 60,000 and not 600,000 as originally stated.