Comprehensive statistics in relation to numbers of applicants for asylum and a breakdown of applications by main nationalities for the years 2010 - 2013 inclusive are available in the annual reports of the Refugee Applications Commissioner. These are published on their website http://www.orac.ie/website/orac/oracwebsite.nsf/page/orac-stats_14-en. In respect of 2014, a total of 1,448 applications for asylum were received, with the top five nationalities being Pakistan, Nigeria, Albania, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.
For the years 2010 to 2014 inclusive a total of 160, 132, 92, 193 and 210 applicants were granted refugee status with Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia representing the top five nationalities. This year to date has seen a sharp increase in the number of asylum applications with a total of 1,481 new asylum applications received to the end of June this year compared with 597 for the same period in 2014. This is a year on year increase of 884 applicants or 148%. The top five source countries for applications in 2015 are Pakistan, Bangladesh, Albania, Nigeria, and India. These countries account for some 70% of all applications received to end June. The sharpest increases relate to applications from Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals.