Chapter 5 Chapter 5 Asylum-Seekers This chapter presents the main trends in asylum applications and decisions in 2017. 46 During the year, there were an estimated 1.9 million claims for asylum lodged with States or UNHCR in 162 countries or territories. 47,48 This is a reduction compared with 2016 and 2015, when 2.2 million and 2.5 million claims were submitted, respectively, although still higher than 2014 when 1.7 million claims were reported [Table 2]. Out of the provisional total of 1.9 million claims, 1.7 million were initial applications lodged in ‘first instance’ procedures. 49 The remaining 236,700 claims were submitted at second instance, including with courts or other appellate bodies. 50 The number of asylum-seekers with pending claims whose refugee status has yet to be determined at the end of 2017 increased to 3.1 million people from 2.8 million at the end of 2016. unhcr > Global trends 2017 Where refugee status determination is undertaken by UNHCR, 263,400 individual asylum applications were registered by UNHCR offices [Table 2]. Out of these, 252,100 were new applications, and the rest 46 This section does not include information on mass influxes of refugees, nor on those recognized as refugees on a group or prima facie basis. 47 Because some countries have not yet released all of their national asylum data at the time of writing, this figure is likely to be revised later this year. It should be noted that South Africa is yet to submit national asylum data. 48 Analysis of global levels and by country of asylum is based on individuals, with cases multiplied by the average number of persons per case. Analysis by country of origin is based on individuals and cases as reported by the country of asylum, since inflation factors are not available by country of origin. 49 The data for some countries may include a significant number of repeat claims, i.e. the applicant has submitted at least one previous application in the same or another country. 50 Statistical information on outcomes of asylum appeals and court proceedings is under-reported in UNHCR’s statistics, particularly in industrialized countries, because this type of data is often either not collected by States or not published openly. 39