The visualization below is called parallel sets. For each dimension (Origin, First-instance Decisions and Destination), a horizontal bar is shown for each of its possible categories. The width of the bar denotes the absolute number of matches for that category.
Starting with the first dimension (Origin), each of its categories is connected to a number of categories in the next dimension, showing how that category is subdivided. This subdividing is repeated recursively, producing a tree of “ribbons”.
Drag the dimensions and categories to reorder them. You can also click the “alpha” or “size” links that appear next to the dimension name on mouseover, to order the categories by name or frequency.
Only the first-instance decisions from 2014 for the main origin and destination countries in Europe are used (Eurostat). Countries of origin are sorted by their number of applicants from left to right. We can see at a glance that the largest number of asylum-seekers (37%) stem from Syria and most of their applications get accepted (54,460 or 94%). While Serbia has the second largest number of asylum-seekers, only 2% get accepted. Most Syrian refugees within Europe apply in Germany (25,490 or 44%), followed by Sweden (28%) and the Netherlands (10%). However, note that the majority of Syrian refugees actually go to their neighboring countries including Turkey (2 million), Libanon (1.1 million), or Jordan (620 thousand). This data is not included in the graphic shown above.
When dragging the destination dimension to the top, we can see that most refugees in Sweden are from Syria and Eritrea, while in France most asylum-seekers are from Albania and Kosovo. Since asylum applications from the latter two countries are often rejected, France also has a relatively low number of accepted applicants.
Germany has the highest number of asylum decisions in 2014. However, when compared to the size of the national population, Sweden has the highest number of asylum decisions, followed by Malta and Switzerland. Can you spot anything else interesting?