When asking which European country receives the fewest migrants, the answer depends on the indicator used. New arrivals during the year, the foreign-resident population, asylum applications filed or people granted temporary protection: each measure produces a different ranking, and sometimes contradictory results for the same country.
Why countries rank differently depending on the immigration indicator
Take a concrete example. France recorded around 6 immigrants per 1,000 inhabitants in 2024, placing it among the lowest rates in the European Union. In absolute numbers, however, it remains one of the continent’s leading destination countries.
This discrepancy is explained by population size. A small country such as Malta or Luxembourg may receive a modest number of people in absolute terms but have a very high immigration rate per capita. Conversely, a large country’s arrivals are spread across a population of tens of millions.
The same issue arises when comparing foreign residents with annual flows. The EU has around 28.9 million residents who are not EU citizens, or 6.4% of its total population. That share rises to 10% when people born abroad who have acquired EU citizenship are included.
A country with few new arrivals may therefore have a significant share of foreign-born residents who have settled there over several decades. Data on immigration in Europe clearly illustrate how the figures vary depending on the perspective chosen.
Asylum applications and temporary protection: two separate measures in Europe
Asylum applications are another indicator, often confused with immigration in the broader sense. In 2025, nearly 670,000 migrants filed a first-time asylum application in an EU country. More than one million applications were recorded in 2023.
Filing an asylum application does not mean being granted a residence permit. Some applications are rejected, and the people concerned are ordered to leave the country. In 2023, around 83,370 people were actually returned from the EU, far fewer than the number of negative decisions issued.
Temporary protection: a separate mechanism
Since 2022, temporary protection granted to displaced Ukrainians has operated under a separate legal framework. It grants the right to stay and access to certain services without requiring an individual assessment of a conventional asylum application.
Combining temporary protection with asylum applications distorts any comparison between countries. A country hosting many displaced Ukrainians under this scheme will not necessarily appear in asylum-seeker statistics. Poland and the Czech Republic, for example, host a large number of people benefiting from this protection, but this is not reflected in conventional asylum figures.
Eurostat also notes that countries do not deregister people granted temporary protection in the same way. Some countries carry out large-scale administrative deregistrations at certain times, which can create artificial drops in monthly data. Changes in the figures sometimes reflect administrative practices, not actual departures.
Immigration rates per capita: where European countries stand
When comparing immigration rates per 1,000 inhabitants, the European countries with the lowest figures are not the ones usually mentioned in public debate. With 6 immigrants per 1,000 inhabitants in 2024, France ranks near the bottom of the European table for this indicator.
At the other end of the scale, countries such as Luxembourg and Malta record much higher rates, driven by their small populations and specific labor needs. Some Central and Eastern European countries also have low annual inflows, although their situation is changing as they host displaced Ukrainians.
For a useful comparison, consider these indicators and what they measure:
- Gross annual flow: the number of people who entered the country over the course of a year. Favors larger countries in absolute numbers, but says little about the actual impact
- Immigration rate per 1,000 inhabitants: compares arrivals with the population. More useful for measuring relative pressure on public services and the housing market
- Foreign-born resident population: the cumulative result of all migration waves over time. Reflects demographic diversity, not recent trends
- Asylum applications: covers only a fraction of migration, mainly related to conflict and persecution
- Temporary protection: a specific scheme (currently dominated by the case of Ukraine) that is not included in conventional asylum figures
What these figures don’t tell us about immigration in Europe
Eurostat statistics capture legal movements and recorded applications. Frontex reported more than 385,000 irregular entries in 2023, a figure that by definition does not cover the full scale of the phenomenon.
Emigration is the major omission in these comparisons. Europe is also a place people leave. Hundreds of thousands of European citizens leave their country each year for another EU member state or a non-EU country. Net migration would provide a more accurate picture than incoming flows alone.
The economic contribution of migrants is another blind spot in raw rankings. According to data compiled by European institutions, migrants help fill labor shortages in several sectors, from construction to healthcare.
Designating a single country as the one that “receives the fewest” means choosing one indicator and ignoring the others. The ranking depends entirely on the measure used, the period observed and the legal status taken into account.
A country near the bottom of the asylum-application ranking may sit in the middle of the table for its foreign-resident population, or near the top for temporary protection. The only reliable answer starts with a prior question: “the fewest” according to which criterion?
