More than half arrived in the summer months of July, August and September, reaching 413,815 for the third quarter.
A total of 812,705 people claimed asylum in the European Union in the first nine months of 2015, data from the EU statistics agency Eurostat showed on Thursday, putting it on course to top a million for the year.
More than half arrived in the summer months of July, August and September, reaching 413,815 for the third quarter. Partial data for October showed more than 130,000 claiming asylum that month. In all of 2104, 626,065 people claimed asylum in the EU.
Preliminary data shows roughly 140,000 refugees entered Europe in October and November. The Eurostat data complement figures from other agencies, such as the EU's Frontex, which measures the number of irregular crossings it detects on the bloc's external borders, and UN agencies which measure refugees arrivals in Europe.
Facing the biggest influx of people since World War Two, EU leaders have been divided in their responses, threatening the cohesion of the bloc and its open internal border system.
Just over one in four applicants, or 108,305, in the third quarter made claims in Germany, just a couple of hundred more than claims made in Hungary, which responded to the influx in the summer by fencing off its border with non-EU Serbia.
About a third of all applicants, or roughly 138,000, in the third quarter said they were Syrian, with Afghans, at 57,000, and Iraqis, at 44,000, the next largest groups. Eurostat data showed 80 % of Iraqis and 75 % of Syrians were granted asylum as were 62% of Eritreans in the third quarter. That compares with 99% of Albanians being refused refugee status, 96% of Kosovars and 77 % of Nigerians in the same period.
Germany rejected half of applicants, France said "no" to 74%, Italy to 60% and Britain to 63% in the July-September period.
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