Unaccompanied or Separated Children (UASC) Seeking Asylum Provisional data indicate that the number of unaccompanied or separated children seeking asylum on an individual basis has increased significantly over recent years, reaching the highest levels since UNHCR started systematically collecting such data in 2006. In 2015, about 98,400 new individual asylum applications were submitted by unaccompanied or separated children, with 78 countries reporting at least one such individual application. This compares with 34,300 in 2014 and 25,300 in 2013. Much of this increase is related to the overall increase in asylum applications, but the proportion of unaccompanied or separated children among all asylum applications has also increased from just over 2 per cent in 2013 to nearly 5 per cent in 2015. It should be noted that not all countries report information on the numbers of unaccompanied or separated children seeking asylum, most notably South Africa and the United States of America; thus it is very likely that the reported figure is an under-estimate. Sweden and Germany not only registered the most asylum applications from unaccompanied or separated children across the European Union but also the highest number of asylum claims from unaccompanied or separated children among all countries reporting such statistics. In Sweden, 35,800 unaccompanied or separated children applied for asylum in 2015. This was a more than fivefold increase from 2014 (some 7,000 applications) and represents more than a fifth of all new asylum applications received in that country. The majority were from Afghans, who lodged 23,600 applications in 2015 compared to 1,500 in 2014. Other nationalities with a significant number of applications by unaccompanied or separated children in Sweden included the Syrian Arab Republic (3,800), Somalia (2,200), Eritrea (1,900), and Iraq (1,100). The situation was similar in Germany, although the increase was not as steep. The country received 4,400 claims by unaccompanied or separated children in 2014, which rose to 14,400 the following year. Again, Afghan minors were the most common with 4,700 applications, closely followed by Syrians (4,000). Outside of Europe, only Kenya had more than 1,000 unaccompanied or separated children lodging applications, with 2,300, a similar level to 2014; most of these came from children from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan. Among all asylum applications from unaccompanied or separated children, those from Afghan minors formed by far the largest group with 50,300 applications registered, compared with 8,600 in 2014. Of these, 14,400 were from children under 15 years of age and 35,900 were aged 15 to 17. Other nationalities with significant applications from unaccompanied or separated children in 2015 were the Syrian Arab Republic (14,800), Eritrea (7,300), Iraq (5,500), and Somalia (4,100). nationalities with similarly low recognition rates included Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Albania. Pending Claims By the end of 2015, about 3.2 million individuals were awaiting decisions on their asylum claims, a figure that includes applicants at any stage of the asylum procedure. This increase over the previous year (1.8 million) is partly accounted for by a rise in the number of pending claims reported by the Government of South Africa from 463,900 to 1,096,100, as a result of updated statistical information on the number of 44 UNHCR Global Trends 2015 cases pending appeal review. The number of asylum-seekers at the end of 2014 in South Africa is now estimated to be 1,057,600. Thus, it is important to emphasize that there has not been a comparable increase in the number of asylum-seekers in South Africa in 2015; rather, the increase is the effect of a change in methodology due to the historical underreporting of this population. Although the number of new applications in 2015 was relatively low at 62,200, this statistical adjustment means that South Africa hosted more asylum-seekers than any other country at the end of 2015.