On August 31, 2024, nearly 4.2 million non-EU citizens, who fled Ukraine as a consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, had temporary protection status in the EU, compared to 4.1 million a month earlier, Eurostat has said on October 10.

"Compared with the end of July 2024, the largest absolute increases in the number of beneficiaries were observed in Germany (+11, 730; +1.1%), Czechia (+7,275; +2.0%) and Romania (+3,050; +1.8%)," it said, adding that the number of beneficiaries decreased in Poland (-1,015; -0.1%), France (-680; -1.1%) and Luxembourg (-10; -0.3%).

According to Eurostat, despite stripping almost 237,000 people of temporary protection status in July, Germany still remains the country with the largest number of such people in the EU and the world – 1.1 million at the end of August, or 27% of the total number of EU beneficiaries.

It is followed by Poland with 975,190, or 23.4%, and the Czech Republic with 376,890, or 9.1%.

In August statistics, after a four-month break, data on Spain were updated, according to which it ranks fourth with 215,130 people, compared to 203,300 at the end of March.

At the same time, Eurostat clarified that the data for Spain, Greece and Cyprus takes into account the part of people whose temporary protection status is no longer valid.

According to the agency, compared to the population of each EU member state, the highest number of beneficiaries of temporary protection per 1,000 people in August 2024 was observed in the Czech Republic (34.6), Lithuania (27.6) and Poland (26.6), while the corresponding figure at the EU level is 9.3.

As of August 31, 2024, Ukrainian citizens accounted for more than 98% of temporary protection beneficiaries. Adult women accounted for almost half (45.1%) of temporary protection beneficiaries in the EU, children – for almost a third (32.3%), while adult men – for just over a fifth (22.6%) of the total. A year earlier, the proportion of women was 46.5%, children 33.9% and adult men 19.5%.

According to the data presented, in July, Italy ranked fifth in terms of the number of refugees from Ukraine with temporary protection status in the EU with 166,800, which is 60,000 more than in July.

There were more than 100,000 of such people at the end of August 2024 in the Netherlands – 116,900, Slovakia – 125,920, and Ireland – 107,440.

There were from 50,000 to 100,000 of beneficiaries in Belgium – 83,240, Lithuania – 79,740, Austria – 80,270, Norway – 74,960, Finland – 66,490, Switzerland – 66,480, Portugal – 63,010, France – 60,670 (data of children are mostly not included by Eurostat), and Bulgaria – 62,510.

Next are Latvia with 46,510 people, Sweden – 43.730, Hungary – 37,530, Denmark – 35,790, Estonia – 33,840, Greece – 31,480, Croatia – 25,220, Cyprus – 21,130, Iceland – 3,910, Luxembourg – 3,810, Malta – 2,130, and Liechtenstein – 650.

Eurostat clarified that all figures quoted refer to the granting of temporary protection on the basis of EU Council Decision 2022/382 of March 4, 2022, establishing the existence of a massive influx of displaced persons from Ukraine due to Russia's military invasion and entailing the introduction of temporary protection.

According to updated UNHCR data, the number of Ukrainian refugees in Europe as of September 16 this year was estimated at 6.218 million, and globally at 6.780 million, up by 134,000 and 125,000 respectively from a month earlier.

In Ukraine, according to the latest UN data as of April this year, there were 3.548 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), which is 141,000 fewer than at the beginning of the year.