"In 2009, there were nearly 261 000 asylum applicants registered in the EU27, or 520 applicants per million inhabitants. The main countries of citizenship of these applicants were Afghanistan (20 400 or 8% of the total number of applicants), Russia (20 100 or 8%), Somalia (19 100 or 7%), Iraq (18 700 or 7%) and Kosovo ... (14 200 or 5%). These data on asylum applicants in the EU27 are taken from a report issued by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union." (Quoted from press release)