Escaping Russia’s war: 4.1m people under temporary EU protection – Eurostat

On 31 July 2023, more than 4.1 million non-EU citizens, who fled Ukraine as a consequence of the Russian invasion on 24 February 2022, had temporary protection status in EU countries.

The main EU countries hosting beneficiaries of temporary protection from Ukraine were Germany (1 153 865 people; 28% of the total), Poland (971 080; 24%) and Czechia (357 540; 9%).

Compared with the end of June 2023, the number of beneficiaries of temporary protection from Ukraine in the EU increased by 45 915 (+1.1%). The largest absolute increases were observed in Germany (+20 445 +1.8%), Czechia (+8 400; +2.5%) and the Netherlands (+3 515; +2.9%).

On the other hand, two countries saw a decrease in the number of people under temporary protection: Poland (-6 660; -0.7%) and Latvia (-1 760; -4.2%).

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 Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, and having the effect of introducing temporary protection.

Compared with the population of each EU member, the highest numbers of total temporary protection beneficiaries per thousand people at the end of July 2023 were observed in Czechia (33.0), Poland (26.4), Estonia (25.9), Bulgaria (25.3) and Lithuania (25.0), whereas the corresponding figure at the EU level was equal to 9.2 per thousand people.

On 31 July 2023, Ukrainian citizens represented over 98% of the beneficiaries of temporary protection. Adult women made up almost half (46.6%) of temporary protection beneficiaries in the EU. Children accounted for slightly more than one-third (34.2%), while adult men comprised less than a fifth (19.2%) of the total.