Slight Decline in Migration Flows to the European Union in 2024
The European Union received approximately 4.2 million migrants from non-member countries in 2024, marking a slight decrease compared to the 4.4 million arrivals recorded in 2023, according to data released by Eurostat.
The European statistics office noted that this figure is supplemented by around 1.5 million internal transfers between EU member states, indicating that the data does not include Ukrainian refugees benefitting from temporary protection in some countries.
Conversely, about 3.2 million people left one of the EU member states in the same year, either to another member country or outside the bloc, including roughly 1.6 million migrants heading to third countries.
Geographically, Spain topped the list of the most popular destinations for migrants, welcoming 1.29 million, followed by Germany with 1.08 million, then Italy (451,600) and France (438,600).
Spain and Germany also ranked among the leading countries for departures, with 662,300 and 584,200 cases respectively, followed by France, which recorded 263,200 departures.
These figures reflect a relative stability in migration dynamics towards Europe, with continued appeal from major countries, balancing the inflows and outflows within the European space.
