People under temporary protection stable at 4.2 million

On 31 March 2024, 4.2 million non-EU citizens, who fled Ukraine as a consequence of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine that began on 24 February 2022, had temporary protection status in the EU.

At the end of March 2024, the EU countries hosting the highest number of beneficiaries of temporary protection from Ukraine were Germany (1 301 790 people; 30.9% of total EU), Poland (955 520; 22.7%) and Czechia (364 375; 8.7%).

Compared with the end of February 2024, the largest absolute increases in the number of beneficiaries were observed in Germany (+15 210; +1.2%), the Netherlands (+4 705; +4.0%) and Bulgaria (+3 475; +7.6%).

The number of beneficiaries decreased in 9 EU countries, with Czechia (-20 700; -5.4%), Sweden (-9 960; -21.5%), Austria (-9 130; -11.1%), Denmark (-5 385; -14.5%) and Poland (-1 680; -0.2%) registering the largest absolute decreases.

Data presented in this article refer to the attribution of temporary protection status based on the Council Implementing Decision 2022/382 of 4 March 2022, establishing the existence of a mass influx of displaced persons from Ukraine due to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, and having the effect of introducing temporary protection.

On 28 September 2023, the European Council agreed to extend the temporary protection for these people from 4 March 2024 to 4 March 2025.

Source datasets: migr_asytpsm and migr_asytpspop

Compared with the population of each EU country, the highest numbers of total temporary protection beneficiaries per thousand people at the end of March 2024 were observed in Czechia (33.7), Lithuania (26.7) and Poland (26.0), whereas the corresponding figure at the EU level was 9.4 per thousand people.

On 31 March 2024, Ukrainian citizens represented over 98% of the beneficiaries of temporary protection. Adult women made up almost half (45.8%) of temporary protection beneficiaries in the EU. Children accounted for almost one-third (32.8%), while adult men comprised slightly more than a fifth (21.4%) of the total.