The number of people applying for asylum in European countries saw a significant jump last year amid worldwide wars and conflicts, the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) said on Tuesday, with Syrians and Afghans the largest groups of applicants.

Member states received some 648,000 applications in 2021, equivalent to a third more than in the previous year, according to the EUAA.

The main groups of applicants were from Syria, with 117,000 and Afghanistan, with 102,000, with the latter group fleeing as the Taliban seized power in the country last August.

Unaccompanied minors accounted for around 23,600 applications, the agency said, two-thirds more than in 2020.

Some 70% of the applicants were men and half of all of the applicants were aged between 18 and 35.

Authorities in the member states made around 535,000 first-instance decisions and accepted around one in three of those applications.

They granted refugee status to 118,000 people, and 64,000 received subsidiary protection status.

Germany received the most asylum applications in 2021 with 191,000, followed by France, Spain and Italy.

This year, the situation in Europe is largely being shaped by the flow of refugees fleeing Russia's war in Ukraine, which is now in its fifth month.

EU authorities have so far granted temporary protection to more than 3.4 million Ukrainian refugees, according to recent EUAA figures.

Temporary protection status gives people a residence permit for one year and access to the labor market and education in EU countries without extensive bureaucracy.