UN: Over one million refugees and economic migrants reach Europe by sea in 2015

Europe is facing the worse refugee crisis since World War II and now the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) confirmed that more than one million refugees and migrants reached the continent by sea since the start of 2015.

This is versus 219,000 in 2014.

The organisation confirmed the data on its website and included a whole host of charts to show how the number of immigrants - which include those fleeing from war and seeking asylum in countries and those classified as economic migrants by the government because they are seeking better lives and jobs without necessarily seeking asylum status - have shot up since 2014.

Here are the key stats from the report:

• Arrivals by sea in 2015 - 1,000,573
• Dead or missing - 3,735
• Arrivals coming from the world's top 10 refugee producing countries - 84%

Here are the world's top 10 refugee producing countries:

What is also interesting is the fact that the amount of migrants coming to Europe are predominantly men:

 

And the biggest spike in sea arrivals came in October, which is when Germany and other European country officials publicly declared that it would take in a huge influx of refugees if it needed to:

 

"Increasing numbers of refugees and migrants take their chances aboard unseaworthy boats and dinghies in a desperate bid to reach Europe," said the UN agency in a statement accompanying its report. 

"The vast majority of those attempting this dangerous crossing are in need of international protection, fleeing war, violence and persecution in their country of origin."

The UN provide a host of really detailed maps to show how over one million immigrants arrive by sea in Europe on its website, but there's a really good gif here that shows the data: