A map of asylum seekers in Europe

Projects to redistribute asylum seekers are currently receiving a lot of attention. This map shows the distribution of asylum seekers between January and June 2015 and represents each country as proportional to the number who live there. All together, more than 400,000 people have requested asylum in Europe over the first six months of the year. The small map shows countries as proportional to their population.

Countries which appear larger than normal have taken in a particularly high number of asylum seekers. These are for the most part countries in the south west of Europe, with Germany topping the list, but also Switzerland, Austria, the Benelux countries and Sweden. Apart from Malta and Italy, all the 'border countries' have welcomed a relatively low number of asylum seekers - for certain countries so few that they practically disappear of the map.

The map was published by geographer Benjamin Henning on his site, where a 2014 map is also available. The data used are from Eurostat.