Among EFTA countries, Switzerland, Norway and Liechtenstein are represented in this publication.

Figures show overall an increase in asylum applicants in the 2nd quarter 2009 compared to the 2nd quarter 2008. Figures for Norway show an increase of 48% whilst the number of asylum applicants in Switzerland increased 9.4%. The EU-27 increase is 4.9%.

Considering the 12 last months, Switzerland is ranked 6th in EU-27 ranking list with 18,760 asylum applicants. In the same period, Norway received 15,785 applications which represents 5.1% of the EU-27 figure of 266,465 .

According to the publication, the typical asylum applicant in the EFTA countries is a male between 18 and 34 years old mainly from countries in conflict, namely Afghanistan, Iraq and Eritrea.

More information: Eurostat

The EFTA Statistical Office (ESO) was created in 1991 as a liaison office between Eurostat and the EFTA national statistical institutes. ESO's objective is to support the general cooperation process between EFTA States and the EU for the provision of harmonised and comparable statistics in Europe. The cooperation also entails technical cooperation programmes with third countries and training of European statisticians.