SINCE the attacks in Cologne several commentators have argued that Europe has a “man problem”. Writing in Politico Magazine, Valerie Hudson, a political scientist, argued that “the sex ratios among migrants are so one-sided...that they could radically change the gender balance in European countries in certain age cohorts”—especially young ones. Is this the case? More young men than young women have indeed been coming to Europe. Of the 1.2m asylum applicants in the last 12 months of available data, 73% were men, up from 66% in 2012. Those men skew increasingly young: according to Eurostat, the proportion of male asylum claimants who were 18- to 34-year-olds was 40% in October 2015 (the latest available data), up from 35% in 2012. Males between 14 and 17 years old accounted for 11% of all asylum-seekers, up from 5% in 2012.

The numbers, however, differ by nationality. Around 60% of all male asylum-seekers from Algeria and Morocco were 18- to 34-year-olds. By contrast just 48% of the Iraqis, 38% of the Syrians and 31% of the Afghans fell into this age group. Proportions of young males also differ by host country (see chart). Sweden took three asylum-seekers for every 1,000 inhabitants in the 12 months to September 2015. That is the highest ratio in Europe. Alongside this, it also has more young male asylum-seekers: in the past 12 months 17% were 14- to 17-year-olds, compared with only 6% in Germany.