Many of the refugees arriving in Sweden are coming from Syria. Photo: Scanpix

Sweden took in almost 20 percent of the EU’s asylum seekers in 2013, more than any other country in the union.

Despite Sweden’s relatively small population of 9.5 million people, which is 1.9 percent of the European Union’s total population, the country took in 19.5 percent of the 135,700 asylum seekers in 2013.

Of the asylum seekers in Sweden, 46 percent were from Syria. In fact, of the 35,800 Syrians granted protection status in the EU28, over 60 percent were recorded in Sweden and Germany at 12,000 and 9,600 respectively.

After Syrians, most of Sweden’s asylum seekers in 2013 were stateless at a total of 4,110. The third biggest group was from Eritrea at 2,565.

In September last year, Sweden granted permanent residence to all Syrian refugees, the first country in the EU to do so.

Elsewhere in the EU, Germany took in the second-highest number of asylum seekers with 26,080, followed by France with 16,115.

Altogether, the five member states of Sweden, Germany, France, Italy and the UK took in more than 70 percent of those granted protection status in the EU last year.

The total number of Europe’s asylum seekers shot up from 116,200 in 2012.

The statistics were published by Eurostat , the statistical office of the European Union, on Thursday.

Source: The Local.Com