The European Union’s statistical office, Eurostat, counted 4.37 million people from Ukraine under temporary protection at Sept. 30, down 61,055 from August as administrative changes in Poland accounted for the largest country-level decline.
The total fell even though counts increased in 25 of the EU’s 27 member states. Poland’s tally dropped by 80,850, or 8.6%, while Czechia’s declined by 6,640, or 1.7%. Germany, Romania and Italy recorded the largest increases.
Eurostat linked Poland’s lower figure mainly to people moving to standard temporary residence permits and authorities removing inactive cases. It also said differences in national practices for deregistering beneficiaries can cause large month-to-month changes.
Germany hosted the largest group, at 1,300,070, followed by Poland at 858,545 and Czechia at 391,720. Ukrainian citizens made up 98.5% of beneficiaries. Among records with known age and sex values, 28% were minors, 44.1% adult women and 27.9% adult men; Eurostat excluded cases with unknown values from that breakdown.
The EU first activated its temporary-protection mechanism in March 2022. The status carries rights to work and housing.
The Council of the European Union adopted a decision July 30 extending the scheme from March 5, 2027, through March 4, 2028. The decision separately introduced a military-obligation requirement for certain new grants, which took effect Aug. 5. That condition applies to relevant new grants, not the continued coverage of existing beneficiaries. An exemption covers people who held protection on or before Aug. 4, 2026, and retained it continuously in the same member state. The Council said the condition reflects Ukraine’s defense needs.
Eurostat lists Dec. 10 as the planned update date for its Statistics Explained article on monthly temporary-protection statistics.
