BRUSSELS, (Pakistan Point News - 04th Jun, 2026) The Schengen Information System (SIS) recorded unprecedented usage in 2025, processing approximately 17.76 billion searches, equivalent to nearly 49 million searches per day and more than 2 million per hour, marking an 18 percent increase compared to 2024, according to new data released by the European Union Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (eu-LISA).
In its annual report, the agency said the system is Europe's most widely used security tool, enabling authorities, including police forces, border guards and EU agencies, to create and verify alerts relating to persons and objects during field operations and at border crossings.
Total interactions with the system reached around 17.79 billion in 2025, including 22.97 million operations to create, update or delete alerts, representing a slight decline of 2 percent. Text-based searches accounted for 99.93 percent of all searches, while biometric searches represented just 0.07 percent.
The use of automation continued to rise significantly, with automated searches exceeding 12 billion in 2025, compared with 9.9 billion in 2024 and approximately 4 billion in 2021.
The Netherlands and Belgium recorded the highest usage levels, accounting for 29 percent and 22 percent of all searches respectively, together representing more than half of the total.
Biometric searches using fingerprints grew rapidly, increasing by 88 percent compared with 2024, averaging around 36,000 searches per day through the SIS Automated Fingerprint Identification System (SIS-AFIS), which has been operational since 2018.
By the end of 2025, the system stored approximately 94.6 million alerts, up 2 percent year-on-year.
Alerts related to objects accounted for the vast majority at 92.6 million, while alerts concerning individuals approached 2 million, recording annual growth of 19 percent. France, Italy and Germany held the largest shares of stored alerts, accounting for a combined 55 percent of the total.
Migration-related cases represented the largest category of person alerts, with return decisions concerning third-country nationals accounting for 41 percent of all such alerts, followed by entry and stay refusal alerts at 34 percent.
Cross-border matches declined during the year, with Member States reporting 364,984 matches through national SIRENE bureaux, down 8 percent compared with 2024, equivalent to roughly 1,000 matches per day.
These developments coincided with the full operational launch of the European Entry/Exit System (EES) on 10th April 2026. The system records data on non-EU travellers and monitors their permitted periods of stay, including biometric information. It is currently used by 29 countries, while Cyprus and Ireland continue to stamp passports manually.
The framework is expected to be further strengthened with the launch of the European travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) in the final quarter of 2026. The system will apply to visa-exempt travellers entering Europe through a pre-travel authorisation linked to their passports.
