Skip to main content

Which countries are most 'welcoming' to asylum seekers?

(CNN) -- This interactive map shows how "welcoming" western countries are to people claiming asylum, according to figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development and the World Resources Institute.

The countries with most asylum seekers per 1,000 inhabitants are colored red, while nations with least are yellow. Those nations for which no data is available are black. Note that these figures only relate to those claiming asylum, not the numbers of people who were granted refugee status.

Click each colored nation to see individual national data, showing how asylum seeker numbers have risen or fallen since 1999. For example, Norway is colored red (for most welcoming) in 2009 because 17,230 people claimed asylum there but it has a population of just under 5 million. The United States though is colored yellow (less welcoming) because although over twice as many claimed asylum there it has a population of more than 300 million.