Number of Ukrainian refugees in EU slightly decreases – Eurostat

Eurostat published this data on May 8, Ukrinform reports.

Compared with the end of February 2026, the total number of people from Ukraine under temporary protection decreased by 68,980 (-1.6%).

The EU countries hosting the highest number of beneficiaries of temporary protection from Ukraine were Germany (1,274,955 people; 29.4% of the EU total), Poland (961,405; 22.2%) and Czechia (379,820; 8.8%).

Among EU countries, the number of people under temporary protection increased in 14 countries and decreased in 13. The largest absolute increases were observed in Germany (+7,480; +0.6%), Spain (+2,665; +1.0%) and Romania (+2,125; +1.0%). The largest decrease was recorded in Italy (-30,365; -47.4%), due to a simultaneous expiry of a large number of permits at the end of the month linked to the annual permit renewal procedure. This was followed by Czechia (-19,810; -5.0%) and Finland (-8,080; -10.2%).

The highest ratios of temporary protection beneficiaries per thousand people were observed in Czechia (34.8), Poland (26.3) and Slovakia (26.2), whereas the corresponding figure at the EU level was 9.6 per thousand people.

On March 31, 2026, Ukrainian citizens represented over 98.4% of the beneficiaries of temporary protection in the EU. Adult women made up 43.3% of the beneficiaries. Minors accounted for almost one third (30.1%), while adult men comprised slightly more than a quarter (26.6%) of the total.

On June 13, 2025, the European Council adopted the decision to extend the temporary protection for these people from March 4, 2026 to March 4, 2027.

Photo: Ken Mürk / ERR