The volume of asylum applications here last year was less than half the EU average, new figures show. The Eurostat figures published yesterday show there were 290 asylum applications per million of population here last year, compared with an EU average of 600 per million.
Last year, 1,290 people registered for asylum in Ireland, with the highest numbers coming from Nigeria (180), Pakistan (175) and China (140).
Portugal had the lowest application rate last year with 25 per million inhabitants. Estonia had 50; the Czech Republic had 70; Spain had 75; Romania had 80; Slovakia had 90; Bulgaria had 120; Latvia had 150; Lithuania had 160; Hungary had 170; Slovenia had 175; and Poland had 180 applicants per million.
Ireland was in 13th place with 290 per million.
The state with the highest volume of asylum applications last year was Malta, which had 4,525 applications per million inhabitants. Other states with notably high volumes were Luxembourg (4,200); Sweden (3,150) and Belgium (2,925).
The highest actual numbers were recorded in France (56,300 applicants), followed by Germany (53,300) and Italy (34,100). The UK had 26,400 applications, or 425 per million population.