In Poland, the number of people with temporary protection decreased by 80,850 in September 2026, or by 8.6%, to 858,545. In August statistics from the EU, Poland was already second after Germany and retained this position after the decline in September. This is reported by Eurostat.
Why there are fewer people with temporary protection in Poland in September 2026
Eurostat explains the decline mainly due to administrative changes. Some people transitioned to regular temporary residence permits, and during the update of the register, inactive entries were removed. It is impossible to determine how many people actually left Poland based on this data.
One way for Ukrainians with PESEL UKR status to change their residence basis in Poland is to obtain a CUKR residence card for three years. Eurostat does not specify how many individuals from the September statistics received this permit.
Where in the EU there are the most people with temporary protection in September 2026
As of September 30, there were 4.37 million people in the EU under temporary protection who left Ukraine due to the war. Ukrainian citizens made up 98.5% of this group. The highest numbers of individuals with this status were in three countries:
- Germany – 1,300,070 people, 5,515 more than at the end of August.
- Poland – 858,545 people, 80,850 fewer.
- Czech Republic – 391,720 people, 6,640 fewer.
The number of people with temporary protection increased in 25 of the 27 EU countries. After Germany, the largest increase was recorded in Romania (+3,900) and Italy (+2,505). The decrease in Poland and the Czech Republic outweighed the growth in other countries, leading to a total EU figure decrease of 61,055 individuals, or 1.4%.
In terms of protection recipients per thousand residents, the Czech Republic ranked first (35.9), followed by Slovakia (28) and Cyprus (27.4). The EU average was 9.7 per thousand residents. During the previous reduction in Poland, in June 2026, the number of individuals with this status decreased by 6,335 over the month.