2.2.2 The target population The majority of persons registered in Sweden as stateless were born abroad, though a considerable number of stateless persons were born in Sweden to foreign-born parents. As illustrated in the statistical overview below, the main channel through which stateless persons have entered Sweden is the asylum procedure. Smaller numbers of stateless persons have entered Sweden through other immigration procedures, most notably through the family reunification process. Today, the largest group of persons registered as stateless in Sweden originate from Syria. Stateless persons of Palestinian origin constituted the largest group prior to the conflict in Syria, though a large number of the stateless persons residing in Sweden were born in Sweden (see Table 3 below). At the end of 2015, 21,580 persons were registered in the Swedish Population Register as stateless, while 5,523 persons were registered as having “unknown” nationality, and a further 119 persons were registered as having their nationality “under investigation”. 3,781 of the persons registered in the Swedish Population Register at the end of 2015 as stateless and residing in Sweden on the basis of a residence permit, were born in Sweden. In addition, 4,699 persons were registered in 2015 as having been born in Sweden and as having “unknown” nationality. 2.2.2.1 POPULATIONS COVERED BY ADMINISTRATIVE DATA The overview below covers the following categories of persons: 1. Persons registered in the Population Register as “stateless”, with “unknown” nationality or with nationality “under investigation”, as provided by Statistics Sweden (Tables 1-5). 2. Applicants for asylum registered as “stateless”, with “unknown” nationality, or with nationality “under investigation”, as provided by the SMA (Table 6). It should be noted that a person’s nationality is recorded as “unknown” in the asylum procedure either where there is a genuine lack of knowledge and information about the person’s nationality, or where the person’s credibility is questioned in regard to his or her identity and/or country of nationality or former habitual residence. However, as no comprehensive determination of an applicant’s potential statelessness takes place during the asylum procedure, it is possible that some of the asylum-seekers registered as having “unknown” nationality are in fact stateless. At the beginning of the 1990s, around 9,000 persons were registered as stateless in the Swedish Population Register. The stateless population gradually decreased until 2003, when it started to increase again. Following the outbreak of the conflict in Syria and the large arrival of asylum-seekers originating from Syria, the number of persons registered as stateless in Sweden started to increase significantly; in 2012, the number was 9,596 and at the end of 2015, the total number of persons registered in the Population Register as stateless was 21,580. At the same time, another 7,771 persons with claims pending in the asylum procedure were registered by the SMA as stateless, bringing the total number of persons registered in Sweden as stateless at the end of 2015 to 29,351. 20 M A P P I N G S TAT E L E S S N E S S I N S W E D E N