[1] Applications and granting of protection status at first instance: 2019 The following are key datasets and resources published by the Office of Immigration Statistics. Thus, in 2019, the refugee rate was 14.7% (14,066 decisions) and the subsidiary protection rate was 8.9% (8,466 decisions), while the rejection rate reached 76.4% (73,045 decisions) according to OFPRA’s statistics. Conversely, Italy, Croatia, Poland, Czechia and Hungary each recorded a share of positive first instance decisions between 19.7 % (Italy) and 8.5 % (Hungary). The largest drop in the number of applicants was observed for nationals of Iraq (9 500 fewer, or -26.2 %) and of Syria (5 700 fewer, or -7.1 %) With 142 400 applicants registered in 2019, Germany accounted for 23.3 % of all first-time applicants in the EU-27. Figure 8 provides an analysis of the outcome of first instance decisions. This is the largest and lengthiest backlog recorded in asylum statistics. Consequently, the EU total may include such multiple applications.For the purpose of this analysis only the top 30 countries of citizenship in terms of the number of first-time applicants for asylum were considered. Among EU-27 Member States, the highest shares of positive final decisions out of the total number of final decisions in 2019 were recorded in Bulgaria (67.7 %), followed by Austria (55.7 %), Ireland (48.9 %), the Netherlands (48.0 %) and Finland (44.9 %). In 2019, 676 300 asylum seekers applied for international protection in the 27 current Member States of the European Union (EU-27), up by 11.2 % compared with 2018. In 2019, 676 300 asylum seekers applied for international protection in the 27 current Member States of the European Union (EU-27), up by 11.2 % compared with 2018. This was the first time the number of asylum applications increased year-to-year since 2015. EU operational and financial support has been instrumental in helping Member States to address the migration challenge. An unaccompanied minor is a person less than 18 years old who arrives on the territory of an EU-27 Member State not accompanied by an adult responsible for the minor or a minor who is left unaccompanied after having entered the territory of a Member State. The distribution of first-time asylum applicants by sex shows that more men (61.9 %) than women (38.1 %) were seeking asylum. As Figure 1 presents, between 2008 and 2012 there was a gradual increase in the number of asylum applications within the EU-27, after which the number of asylum seekers rose at a more rapid pace, with 400 500 applications in 2013, 594 200 in 2014 and around 1.3 million in 2015. The 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the status of refugees (as amended by the 1967 New York Protocol) has, for around 70 years, defined who is a refugee, and laid down a common approach towards refugees that has been one of the cornerstones for the development of a common asylum system within the EU. Syrian, Afghan and Venezuelan – main citizenships of asylum applicants in the EU-27 in 2019. In contrast, the largest relative decreases were recorded in Italy (-34.5 %, or 18 400 fewer), Germany (-12.0 %, or 19 400 fewer) and Austria (-7.0 %, or 800 fewer), see Figure 3. Though In 2019, 38.1 % of EU-27 first instance asylum decisions resulted in positive outcomes, that is grants of refugee or subsidiary protection status, or an authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons. Decisions made at the first instance resulted in 206 000 persons being granted protection status, while a further 91 000 received protection status on appeal. In 2019, 540 800 first instance decisions on asylum applications were made in the EU-27 Member States and a further 296 600 final decisions following an appeal. However, there were a few exceptions to this pattern: Germany, Estonia, Lithuania, Hungary, Austria and Poland reported a higher proportion of asylum applicants less than 18 years old. 612 700 first-time asylum seekers applied for international protection in the Member States of the EU-27 in 2019. Among the most numerous groups of citizenship of first-time asylum applicants in the EU-27 in 2019, the most substantial increase in the number of applications in comparison with 2018 was recorded for nationals of Venezuela (22 600 applications more, or +101.9 %), followed by nationals of Colombia (21 800 more, or +216.7 %) and Afghanistan (13 600 more, or +34.8 %). For first instance decisions, some 52.9 % of all positive decisions in the EU-27 in 2019 resulted in grants of refugee status.