About the Index

What is the ENS Statelessness Index?

The Statelessness Index is a comparative tool that assesses European countries’ law, policy, and practice on the protection of stateless people and the prevention and reduction of statelessness, against international norms and good practice. It is a tool created for civil society, governments, researchers, the media, and other interested individuals, including stateless people and their communities. The Index was developed and is maintained by the European Network on Statelessness (ENS).

As of March 2023, the Index contains comparative data for 30 countries: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, North Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Norway, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and Ukraine.

Why a Statelessness Index?

The Index allows users to quickly understand which areas of law, policy, and practice can be improved by States and which can be looked to as examples of good practice in addressing statelessness. It is therefore an invaluable tool for sharing this good practice and raising awareness or focusing advocacy on areas that need improvement. There are other indexes examining nationality law and integration policies, for example, as well as thematic research on statelessness in specific countries, but our Index is the first to provide comprehensive and accessible comparative analysis of European countries’ efforts to address statelessness.

Future plans for the Index

ENS is working with its members and partners to develop the Index and welcomes all feedback on any aspect from its users. We want the tool to be as useful as it can be. ENS intends to increase the coverage of the Index in future years and will gradually roll out translations of each country’s profile into a national language. We will also continue to work with our members and partners to develop other useful resources from the Index data, such as thematic briefings, training packages, and awareness raising materials. If you have ideas about how the Index could be developed in the future, please tell us!

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