The Schengen visa exhibition
Schengen visa statistics: every country, 2009 to 2025
17 years of official EU numbers for 151 countries and places, and 40 years of history. Tap, scrub and explore.
- 12.2Mvisa requests in 202520092025
- 212.1Mrequests since 2009
- 15%refused in 2025
- 29Schengen countries
Hall 1
40 years of Schengen
From five countries signing on a riverboat to 29 countries without border checks. These are the moments that made the Schengen visa what it is today.
29 countries without border checks
2025: Bulgaria and Romania fully join
No border checksAirports and ports onlySigned, checks still on
Five countries sign the Schengen Agreement
Belgium, France, West Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands agree to slowly remove checks at their shared borders. They sign on a boat on the Moselle river at Schengen, Luxembourg.
A plan for one shared visa
The same five countries sign the detailed rules, again in Schengen. They plan one visa that works in all member countries for visits of up to three months.
Border checks end, Schengen visa begins
Seven countries stop checking people at their shared borders: Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal. One Schengen visa now covers them all.
Italy and Austria join
Italy starts using the Schengen rules on 26 October 1997. Austria follows in December 1997.
Schengen becomes part of EU law
A new EU treaty, the Treaty of Amsterdam, takes effect. It moves the Schengen rules into EU law, so the EU now makes the border and visa rules.
Greece and the Nordic countries join
Greece joined in 2000. Now Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Iceland and Norway join too. Iceland and Norway are not in the EU, but follow the Schengen rules.
Nine countries join in one day
Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia end land and sea border checks. Checks at airports end on 30 March 2008.
Switzerland joins
Switzerland, which is not in the EU, joins the Schengen area. Checks on flights to and from Switzerland end on 29 March 2009.
One visa rulebook for all
The EU Visa Code starts. Every Schengen consulate now follows the same rules for short-stay visas. The fee is €60 for adults.
Visa database starts, with fingerprints
The Visa Information System starts in North Africa. Consulates take 10 fingerprints and a photo, so border guards can check the visa belongs to you. Children under 12 skip fingerprints.
Liechtenstein joins
Liechtenstein, a small country between Switzerland and Austria, joins the Schengen area. It is the fourth member outside the EU.
Visa database reaches every consulate
After four years, every Schengen consulate in the world now uses the visa database. Fingerprints are now part of most visa applications.
EU agrees the ETIAS travel permit
Visitors who need no visa will need an online permit before travel. Its fee, first €7, is now set at €20. Still planned: the EU will announce the start months ahead.
New visa rules and €80 fee
Apply up to 6 months before your trip. The fee rises to €80. Good past visa use can earn longer multi-entry visas: 1, 2, then 5 years.
COVID-19 stops most travel into Europe
EU leaders agree to stop most travel into Europe for 30 days to slow the virus. The ban is extended, and travel slowly reopens from July 2020.
Croatia joins
Croatia ends checks at its land and sea borders with other Schengen countries. Airport checks end on 26 March 2023.
EU agrees the digital Schengen visa
A new law will let people apply online and get a digital visa instead of a passport sticker. It is planned to start around 2030, with no exact date yet.
Bulgaria and Romania: air and sea
Checks end for people travelling by plane or boat between Bulgaria, Romania and the other Schengen countries. Land border checks stay for now.
Visa fee rises to €90
The adult Schengen visa fee goes up from €80 to €90. Children aged 6 to 11 pay €45.
Bulgaria and Romania fully join
Land border checks with Bulgaria and Romania end too. The Schengen area now has 29 countries: 25 EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
Entry/Exit System starts
Schengen borders begin to register visitors who are not EU or Schengen citizens, with fingerprints and a face photo, step by step over six months.
Passport stamps end
The Entry/Exit System is now fully running at Schengen’s outer borders. It replaces passport stamps and keeps track of how long you stay.
Hall 2
17 years of visa requests
Requests grew to a record 17.3 million in 2013, and 40% of them came from Russia. COVID cut them to 2.9 million in 2020. By 2025 they were back to 12.2 million. Refusals grew too: 10% of requests were refused in 2019, and 15% in 2025.
Schengen visa requests per year
All short-stay visa requests made at Schengen consulates worldwide
Refused, per year
Share of decided requests that were refused
Multi-entry visas, per year
Share of visas given that allow many trips
Until 2015 Germany counted only multi-entry visas valid for more than a year, so the years before 2016 look lower.
See the numbers as a table
| Year | Requests | Refused | Multi-entry |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 10,221,347 | 7% | – |
| 2010 | 11,812,352 | 6% | 34% |
| 2011 | 13,485,396 | 5% | 39% |
| 2012 | 15,116,973 | 5% | 42% |
| 2013 | 17,285,449 | 5% | 45% |
| 2014 | 16,725,908 | 5% | 48% |
| 2015 | 15,446,676 | 6% | 49% |
| 2016 | 15,192,502 | 7% | 59% |
| 2017 | 16,155,613 | 8% | 59% |
| 2018 | 16,016,599 | 10% | 58% |
| 2019 | 16,955,541 | 10% | 59% |
| 2020 | 2,924,365 | 14% | 62% |
| 2021 | 2,926,104 | 13% | 70% |
| 2022 | 7,572,755 | 18% | 58% |
| 2023 | 10,327,572 | 16% | 54% |
| 2024 | 11,716,723 | 15% | 52% |
| 2025 | 12,201,026 | 15% | 52% |
Hall 3
The world map
Every place where people asked for a Schengen visa. Pick a year in the bar above, or press play to watch 17 years go by. Tap a country to see its numbers.
Pinch to zoom · drag sideways · tap a country
Hall 4
Country by country
Every country has its own room: what its numbers say, its 17-year story, the Schengen countries its people applied to and who runs each of their visa centres, and the cities they applied from.
Find a country above, tap one on the map, or choose one in the ranking.
Hall 5
Every country, ranked
Every country and place where Schengen consulates took visa requests in 2025. Tap a column to sort, search for yours, and tap a name to open its room.
| # | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,915,149 | +7% | 4% | 34% | |
| 2 | 1,268,376 | +5% | 15% | 69% | |
| 3 | 1,153,748 | +4% | 16% | 58% | |
| 4 | 679,425 | +10% | 6% | 28% | |
| 5 | 619,827 | +2% | 19% | 55% | |
| 6 | 553,967 | +10% | 5% | 93% | |
| 7 | 512,426 | +9% | 11% | 52% | |
| 8 | 444,577 | −19% | 31% | 36% | |
| 9 | 298,064 | +14% | 24% | 55% | |
| 10 | 264,190 | 0% | 6% | 52% | |
| 11 | 235,674 | +8% | 7% | 69% | |
| 12 | 226,865 | +8% | 24% | 55% | |
| 13 | 223,862 | +10% | 5% | 53% | |
| 14 | 195,946 | +1% | 5% | 73% | |
| 15 | 188,579 | +6% | 20% | 53% | |
| 16 | 187,033 | −7% | 5% | 51% | |
| 17 | 182,002 | 0% | 9% | 42% | |
| 18 | 157,028 | −6% | 2% | 85% | |
| 19 | 146,194 | −14% | 6% | 88% | |
| 20 | 120,364 | +4% | 17% | 49% | |
| 21 | 116,289 | +4% | 9% | 25% | |
| 22 | 113,359 | +1% | 48% | 29% | |
| 23 | 111,550 | +9% | 11% | 41% | |
| 24 | 107,512 | −34% | 29% | 40% | |
| 25 | 106,167 | +2% | 31% | 48% |
“vs year before” leaves out Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania, which joined Schengen in 2023 and 2024, so both years count the same consulates.
Hall 6
The destinations: Schengen countries
Which Schengen countries got the most requests, how often each one said no, and how often it gave multi-entry visas, for the year in the bar above.
Requests by Schengen country, 2025
Liechtenstein has no consulates of its own; other Schengen countries handle its visas. Croatia counts from 2023, Bulgaria and Romania from 2024, the years they started issuing Schengen visas.
Hall 7
Records
The biggest, the strictest and the most surprising numbers from 17 years of Schengen visas.
Swipe for more →
- 17.3M
The record year: 2013
More Schengen visa requests than in any other year since 2009.
- 7M
Most from one country: Russia, 2013
More requests from one country than in any other year since 2009: 40% of all requests that year.
- 4.7M
Busiest visa city: Moscow, 2013
Moscow, Russia: more requests than any other city in any year since 2009.
- −83%
The COVID year: 2020
Requests fell from 17 million in 2019 to 2.9 million in 2020.
- 1.9M
Most requests in 2025: China
16% of all Schengen visa requests that year.
- ×3.9
Fastest growth since 2019: Libya
From 11,254 requests in 2019 to 43,701 in 2025.
- −3.5M
Biggest drop since 2019: Russia
From 4.1 million requests in 2019 to 679,425 in 2025, 84% fewer.
- 55%
Highest refusal rate in 2025: Bangladesh
The highest refusal rate among countries with at least 10,000 requests.
- 2%
Lowest refusal rate in 2025: Belarus
The lowest refusal rate among countries with at least 10,000 requests.
- 93%
Highest multi-entry share in 2025: Saudi Arabia
Share of visas that allowed many trips, among countries with at least 10,000 requests.
- 38%
Strictest destination in 2025: Malta
The Schengen country that refused the largest share of its requests (at least 10,000).
- 10%
Most open destination in 2025: Slovakia
The Schengen country that refused the smallest share of its requests (at least 10,000).
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Get my appointmentWhere the numbers come from
Requests are short-stay Schengen visa applications made at the consulates of the Schengen countries, as the European Commission counts them each year. Refused means not issued, out of all requests that got a decision; for 2009 and 2010 it also includes airport transit visas. Multi-entry is the share of visas given that allow many trips; it was not counted in 2009, and until 2015 Germany counted only multi-entry visas valid for more than a year, so shares before 2016 look lower. A Schengen country joins the count from the year it started issuing Schengen visas: Croatia in 2023, Bulgaria and Romania in 2024; before that, requests made in those countries count as coming from them. The change from the year before leaves out Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania, so it compares like with like. Rates are not shown for a country in a year with fewer than 200 requests. Countries are where the request was made, not the traveller’s passport. The companies that run each visa centre (or “Consulate” where people apply directly) were checked on 25 October 2026 on embassy and provider websites; these contracts change often, and each badge links to its source.
European Commission, visa statistics for consulates, 2009–2025 · Download this data (JSON)