Norway received 31,000 asylum-seekers in 2015

Norwegian immigration officials said that 31,145 people applied for asylum in the country last year, almost three times as many as in 2014, according to AP.

Presenting the statistics on Thursday, the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration said one-third of the asylum-seekers were Syrians.

The second biggest group was Afghans, followed by Iraqis and Eritreans.

The agency said just over half of the asylum-seekers were adult men, 15 percent were adult women and 33 percent were minors.
About 5,300 of the minors were unaccompanied, most of them from Afghanistan.

Officials project that up to 60,000 people could apply for asylum in Norway, one of Europe's richest countries, in 2016.

Neighboring Sweden received nearly 163,000 asylum-seekers last year.

Source: SPA