Another 100,000 people left Ukraine this year: The EU countries taking in the most refugees
Illustrative photo: The number of refugees from Ukraine has increased by 100 thousand (Getty Images)
Most refugees left Ukraine after the war began in 2022. But the outflow continues now, according to the Monitoring of Major Events in the Ukrainian Economy (March 2025) by the Ministry of Economy.
As noted in the review, according to the UN Refugee Agency, as of April 17, 2025, 6.918 million refugees from Ukraine were recorded worldwide (6.358 million refugees were recorded in Europe and 0.56 million refugees outside Europe).
Compared to the data as of December 16, 2024, the number of refugees in Europe has increased by 104 thousand.
According to the UN, the largest number of Ukrainians are in the following countries:
- Germany - 1.243 million people,
- Poland - 999.7 thousand,
- Czechia - 401.4 thousand,
- UK - 254 thousand,
- Spain - 235.7 thousand,
- Italy - 171 thousand,
- France - 70.1 thousand.
1.2 million refugees were registered in Russia (as of June 30, 2022), and 44 thousand refugees in Belarus (as of March 31, 2025).
Portrait of a refugee
Based on a survey conducted by the UN Refugee Agency in selected European countries between October 2024 and April 2025 (6,471 interviews, 99% of respondents were Ukrainian citizens, including 77% of women, the average age of respondents was 44 years), the following information was obtained about the migrants surveyed:
- aged 18-59 years - 36% of women, 17% of men;
- the largest number left in the first and second quarters of 2022 (28% and 14%, respectively);
- before leaving Ukraine - 52% employed, employed in the host country - 42%;
- before leaving Ukraine - 5% of the unemployed, were unemployed in the host country - 16%.
Refugee forecasts
According to the National Bank of Ukraine, the outflow of migrants from Ukraine continued in 2024 and totaled about 0.5 million people over the year. The NBU expects another 200 thousand people to leave Ukraine this year.
The NBU expects their return to begin in 2026 (about 0.2 million people), which will accelerate in 2027 (about 0.5 million people).
According to the European Commission, the number of recipients of temporary protection in the EU amounted to about 4.3 million people in January 2025. It is expected that the number will remain stable throughout 2025, and then decline to 4.1 million by the end of 2025 and to 3.8 million by the end of 2026.
