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Overview of statistical practice
In France, detailed statistics on asylum applications and first instance decisions are published annually by the Office of Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA) in its activity reports. The next OFPRA Activity Report will be published in spring/summer 2025, several months after the end of the reporting year.[1] Statistics on the second instance procedure are to be found in the National Court of Asylum (CNDA) annual reports, which are usually published few weeks after the end of their reporting period.[2]
However, thanks to “SI Asile”, an information system established by the Ministry of Interior in 2016, some provisional data are made available by the Ministry each year, in January; this data is corrected through a definitive publication by the Ministry in June of each year.[3]
Discrepancies in statistics
The various sources of statistics provide different figures on the number of persons seeking asylum in France:[4]
- OFPRA statistics only cover persons who have lodged an asylum application with OFPRA. As discussed in Registration, those falling under a Dublin procedure are not allowed to lodge their claim and are thus not included in OFPRA statistics. The statistics on France provided to Eurostat until 2020 were incomplete insofar as these were based on OFPRA figures;
- Ministry of Interior statistics refer to persons registered at a “single desk” (guichet unique de demande d’asile, GUDA), including those then channelled into Dublin procedures (see Registration).
- Persons re-channelled from a Dublin procedure into a regular or accelerated procedure (requalifiés) do not appear in Ministry of Interior statistics if their application has been registered at the GUDA in previous years. They do, however, appear in OFPRA statistics.
- Persons arrived in resettlement programmes and persons applying for asylum in detention are not registered at the GUDA but appear in OFPRA statistics.
Applications registered by the GUDA in France are usually higher than the reported number of applications lodged with OFPRA.
In 2024, 157,947 persons were registered as asylum applicants by the Ministry of Interior (compared to 167,432 in 2023), of which 130,952 as first-time applicants (145,522 in 2023) and 26,995 as subsequent applicants (21,910 in 2023). Furthermore, a total of 153,596 asylum applicants lodged applications before OFPRA (compared to 142,649 in 2023).[5] The latter include requalifiés from previous years (not included in 2024 GUDA statistics) and people whose asylum application is not registered in GUDA (i.e., asylum claims in detention and persons arriving through resettlement programmes).
According to the Ministry of Interior, the nationality breakdown of people registered in GUDA for the first 10 countries of origin in 2024 was as follows: Ukraine, Afghanistan, DR Congo, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Türkiye, Haiti, Bangladesh, Sudan, Georgia.
Applications and granting of protection status at first instance: 2024 (1)
Detailed statistics on applications and first instance decisions were not made available by the national authorities at the time of writing of this report (April 2025). The preliminary statistics published by the Ministry of Interior in February 2025 indicate a total of 157,947 applicants for international protection, out of which 130,952 were first-time applicants and 26,995 subsequent applicants. The main nationalities represented were Ukraine, followed by Afghanistan, Haiti, DRC, Guinea, and Ivory Coast.[6]
As regards decisions on international protection, OFPRA indicated that the overall protection rate at first instance stood at 38.8% in 2024.[7] A detailed breakdown by nationality was not available from OFPRA at the time of writing of this report (April 2025).
The following statistics are mainly based on Eurostat statistics, as that is the only detailed data on decisions available as of April 2025 (for coherence of data, Eurostat statistics on applications were also used for this table). It must be read with caution as they include inadmissibility decisions in rejections. Moreover, data on applications does not completely correspond to cases that will go to the first instance procedure, as it includes all applications registered by authorities (including asylum applicants under a Dublin procedure).
| Applicants in
2024 (2) |
Pending at
end of 2024 |
Total decisions
in 2024 (3) |
Total rejections (4) | Refugee status | Subsidiary protection | |
| Total | 157,850 | 147,450 | 138,380 | 86,255 | 30,005 | 22,120 |
| Breakdown by top 10 countries of origin | ||||||
| Ukraine | 13,610 | 8,635 | 7,365 | 560 | 110 | 6,695 |
| Afghanistan | 12,915 | 10,745 | 17,795 | 5,880 | 9,965 | 1,950 |
| Haiti | 11,645 | 5,600 | 9,690 | 2,665 | 190 | 6,835 |
| DRC | 10,200 | 9,570 | 8,180 | 5,690 | 1,735 | 755 |
| Guinea | 9,240 | 12,305 | 8,010 | 5,625 | 2,230 | 160 |
| Ivory Coast | 8,030 | 9,925 | 7,580 | 5,620 | 1,710 | 250 |
| Türkiye | 8,815 | 8,055 | 10,360 | 8,640 | 1,510 | 215 |
| Bangladesh | 6,420 | 9,720 | 7,515 | 6,860 | 485 | 170 |
| Sudan | 5,505 | 6,260 | 3,205 | 1,275 | 600 | 1,330 |
| Georgia | 4,450 | 2,855 | 4,165 | 3,885 | 105 | 175 |
Source: Eurostat, ‘First instance decisions on applications by type of decision, citizenship, age and sex – annual aggregated data’, last updated 25 April 2025, consulted 16 May 2025, available here. Rounded up to the closest five.
Note 1: statistics on applicants and pending concern people, including children and dependents. Based on Eurostat explanatory texts, this data refers to the number of persons covered by rejection/protection decisions, rather than the number of decisions (which may cover more than one person).
Note 2: “Applicants in year” refers to the total number of applicants, and not only to first-time applicants.
Note 3: Statistics on decisions cover the decisions taken throughout the year, regardless of whether they concern applications lodged that year or in previous years.
Note 4: Due to lack of disaggregated data, total rejections include inadmissibility decisions.
Applications and granting of protection status at first instance: rates for 2024
| Overall rejection rate | Overall protection rate | Refugee rate | Subsidiary protection rate | |
| Total | 62.3% | 37.7% | 21.7% | 16% |
| Ukraine | 7.6% | 92.4% | 1.5% | 91% |
| Afghanistan | 33% | 67% | 56% | 11% |
| Haiti | 27.5% | 72.5% | 2% | 70.5% |
| DRC | 69.6% | 30.4% | 21.2% | 9.2% |
| Guinea | 70.2% | 29.9% | 27.8% | 1.2% |
| Ivory Coast | 74.1% | 25.9% | 22.6% | 3.3% |
| Türkiye | 83.3% | 16.7% | 14.6% | 2% |
| Bangladesh | 91.3% | 8.7% | 6.5% | 2.3% |
| Sudan | 39.8% | 60.2% | 18.7% | 41.5% |
| Georgia | 93.3% | 6.7% | 2.5% | 4.2% |
Source of the percentages: calculated by the author based on the data presented in the previous table (Eurostat).
Note: Due to lack of disaggregated data, these percentages are calculated based on total decisions, including inadmissibility decisions.
Gender/age breakdown of the total number of applicants: 2024
| Men | Women | |
| Number | 91,900 | 66,950 |
| Percentage | 58.2% | 41.8% |
| Adults | Children | |
| Number | 109,355 | 48,495 |
| Percentage | 69.3% | 30.7% |
Source: Eurostat
Notes:
- The gender breakdown (Men/Women) applies to all applicants, not only adults.
- There is no segregated data between accompanied and unaccompanied children available at latest time of writing (February 2025).
First instance and appeal decision rates: 2024
It should be noted that, during the same year, the first instance and appeal authorities handle different caseloads. Thus, the decisions below do not concern the same applicants.
| First instance | Appeal | |||
| Number | Percentage | Number[8] | Percentage | |
| Total number of decisions | 138,380[9] | 100% | 60,720 | 100% |
| Positive decisions | 52,125 | 37.7% | 13,105 | 21.6% |
|
30,005 | 21,7% | 8,665 | 14.3% |
|
22,120 | 16% | 4,440 | 7.3% |
| Negative decisions | 86,255 | 62.3% | 47,615 | 78.4% |
Source: for first instance, see Eurostat information above; for appeal, see CNDA, Rapport d’activité 2024, January 2025, available in French here.
[1] OFPRA, ‘Rapports d’activité’, available in French at: http://bit.ly/3my3uOr.
[2] CNDA, ‘Rapports annuels’, available in French at: https://bit.ly/3wMbqh9.
[3] Ministry of Interior, ‘Chiffres clés – Les demandes d’asile’, 4 February 2025, available in French here.
[4] For a discussion, see Forum refugies, ‘Asile : comprendre et analyser les données statistiques’, 14 January 2022, available in French at: https://bit.ly/3wgljmr.
[5] Ministry of Interior, ‘Chiffres clés – Les demandes d’asile’, 4 February 2025, available in French here.
[6] Ministry of Interior, ‘Chiffres clés – Les demandes d’asile’, 4 February 2025, available in French here.
[7] Ministry of Interior, ‘Chiffres clés – Les demandes d’asile’, 4 February 2025, available in French here.
[8] Without accompanying children, who are not included in CNDA statistics.
[9] This does not include decisions discontinuing cases (‘décision de cloture’).