Data for 2003

Asylum-Seekers by Country of Asylum, 2003

Name: Asylum-Seekers by Country of Asylum, 2003
Creator: UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency
License: https://www.unhcr.org/what-we-do/data-and-publications/data-and-statistics/terms-use-datasets

Figures for 2003, as UNHCR published them · stored as published, never rewritten

Asylum-Seekers by Country of Asylum, 2003 covers 147 countries. United States is highest, at 350,860; 19 countries share the lowest reading, 0. The middle country reads 318. Against 2002, 132 values changed (73 up, 59 down), 2 left.

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Asylum-Seekers by Country of Asylum · Data for 2003

HighestUnited States

350,860

Lowest19 countries share it

Shaded by value in five groups of equal size, darkest at the highest end.

147countries
1measure
2003the year it describes
120distinct valueswhole numbers, as published
Sep 26, 2026read from the publisher
CC BY 4.0licence

01Values only

The table

Every country and every column of Asylum-Seekers by Country of Asylum, 2003, as published. The file carries values only, so no position is shown. “=” marks a shared position.

Search this table

Showing 25 of 147 countries · select a heading to sort

Asylum-Seekers by Country of Asylum, 2003: every country, as published by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.

United States`USA`Northern America	350,860
Germany`DEU`Western Europe	128,042
South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	84,089
Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	44,635
Canada`CAN`Northern America	41,570
Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	35,250
Austria`AUT`Western Europe	33,564
Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	24,529
United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	23,900
France`FRA`Western Europe	22,900
Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	22,582
Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	13,702
Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	10,565
Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	9,215
Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	9,199
Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	8,846
Azerbaijan`AZE`Western Asia	8,796
Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	7,366
Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	7,251
Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	6,728
Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	5,675
Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	5,390
Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	5,122
Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	5,065
Slovakia`SVK`Eastern Europe	4,634
Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	4,082
Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	4,015
Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	3,737
Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	3,448
Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	3,419
Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	3,222
Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	3,019
Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	2,978
Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	2,645
Ecuador`ECU`South America	2,554
Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	2,545
North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	2,285
Venezuela`VEN`South America	2,282
Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	2,260
Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	2,015
Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	1,989
Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	1,651
Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	1,512
Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	1,318
Argentina`ARG`South America	1,188
Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	1,120
Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	1,075
New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	1,019
Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	999
Uzbekistan`UZB`Central Asia	967
Syria`SYR`Western Asia	931
Ukraine`UKR`Eastern Europe	874
Benin`BEN`Western Africa	804
Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	758
Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	736
Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	723
Mali`MLI`Western Africa	710
Israel`ISR`Western Asia	703
Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	695
Kyrgyzstan`KGZ`Central Asia	634
Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	616
Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	553
Brazil`BRA`South America	551
India`IND`Southern Asia	530
Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	523
Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	491
Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	477
DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	441
Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	437
Tajikistan`TJK`Central Asia	433
Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	424
Togo`TGO`Western Africa	329
Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	326
Belarus`BLR`Eastern Europe	318
Papua New Guinea`PNG`Melanesia	305
Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	302
Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	275
Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	232
Eritrea`ERI`Eastern Africa	200
Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	192
Somalia`SOM`Eastern Africa	190
Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	180
Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	179
Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	174
Peru`PER`South America	174
Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	162
Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	161
Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	136
Moldova`MDA`Eastern Europe	131
South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	126
Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	122
Panama`PAN`Central America	95
Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	94
Lithuania`LTU`Northern Europe	90
Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	86
Liechtenstein`LIE`Western Europe	85
Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	79
Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	77
Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	71
Mexico`MEX`Central America	66
United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	61
Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	59
Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	56
Libya`LBY`Northern Africa	55
Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	54
Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	50
Chile`CHL`South America	48
Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	44
Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	42
China`CHN`Eastern Asia	39
Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	33
Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	32
Armenia`ARM`Western Asia	30
Niger`NER`Western Africa	27
Oman`OMN`Western Asia	21
Colombia`COL`South America	15
Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	15
Timor-Leste`TLS`South-eastern Asia	12
Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	8
Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	6
Belize`BLZ`Central America	5
Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	5
El Salvador`SLV`Central America	5
Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	5
Paraguay`PRY`South America	5
Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	5
Turkmenistan`TKM`Central Asia	5
Uruguay`URY`South America	5
Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	0
Bolivia`BOL`South America	0
Estonia`EST`Northern Europe	0
Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	0
Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	0
Georgia`GEO`Western Asia	0
Guatemala`GTM`Central America	0
Honduras`HND`Central America	0
Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	0
Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	0
Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	0
Kazakhstan`KAZ`Central Asia	0
Latvia`LVA`Northern Europe	0
Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	0
Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	0
Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	0
Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	0
Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	0
Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	0

02In 2003

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

United States350,860
Germany128,042
South Africa84,089
Netherlands44,635
Canada41,570

Lowest

Vietnamshared0
Portugalshared0
Norwayshared0
Latviashared0
Luxembourgshared0

Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score. The middle country reads 318. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

032002 → 2003

Since 2002

What changed between 2002 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

+0 / −2countries joined / left
132values changed, of 147 in both
73 · 59rose · fell
15unchanged

Rose most

South Africa52,447 → 84,089+31,642
Pakistan1,597 → 13,702+12,105
Malaysia1,574 → 9,199+7,625
Greece1,801 → 7,251+5,450
Austria29,494 → 33,564+4,070

Fell most

United States395,358 → 350,860−44,498
Germany163,975 → 128,042−35,933
Sudan23,449 → 477−22,972
United Kingdom41,300 → 23,900−17,400
Netherlands58,134 → 44,635−13,499

− Comoros

− Madagascar

Changes in value, not in places: a country’s place also moves when others do. Every country’s full history is charted on the statistic page.

04Caveats

Read before you use

What this edition’s numbers are and are not, worked out from the file itself.

How values are stored

120 distinct values among 147
Values are stored exactly as published. 19 countries share 0. Countries sharing a value share a position too.
Nothing missing
Every one of the 147 countries has every column.

05The files

Download and cite

The table as a file, digit for digit, what this site changed, and a citation for this edition.

Licence in full

.csv
For a spreadsheet or code
147 rows · 4.1 KB · UTF-8, opens in Excel
Opens with 11 lines of source notes; the table starts on row 13.
Download asylum-seekers-hosted-2003-nations-inquiry.csv
↗
The publisher’s original
UNHCR’s own file, on its own site.
https://api.unhcr.org/population/v1/population/?limit=1000&yearFrom=2003&yearTo=2003&coa_all=true

What this site changed: Reshaped into one row per country: regional and income-group totals are left out, only the columns listed are kept, each row gets its ISO 3166 code, and some country names are brought to one spelling. No value is recalculated, rescaled or rounded.

Licence: CC BY 4.0 · what it allows, in plain words

Cite this edition

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency (2003). Asylum-Seekers by Country of Asylum, 2003 [data set], describing 2003. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/asylum-seekers-hosted/2003

0626 held

Other years

‹ The year before
Asylum-Seekers by Country of Asylum, 2002
149 countries
The year after ›
Asylum-Seekers by Country of Asylum, 2004
148 countries
All of them
Asylum-Seekers by Country of Asylum: every year
26 held, with the data dictionary, coverage and licence.
How it has moved, charted by country

07Questions