International adoptions fell by 10% in the first half of 2026
The countries from which most adoptions originate – Hungary and India – are also those that have seen the most significant declines
Key points
International adoptions, in the first half of 2026 fell by around 10 per cent compared with the same period last year. This was revealed by figures released by the Commission for International Adoptions (CIA), published on 20 July 2026. In the first six months of this year, in fact, there were 217 adoptions, whereas from January to June 2025 there had been 242.
Origin
In absolute terms, the countries from which the majority of adoptions originate are Hungary and India, with 35 and 40 adoptions finalised respectively. Compared with the first half of last year, this represents a significant reduction for both countries: for Hungary, from which 49 children arrived in the first six months of 2025, this is a fall of 28.6 per cent. For India, on the other hand, which has seen the number of adoptions fall from 48 to 40, this represents a decrease of 16.7 per cent. The South-East Asian country, however, has a rather high number of cases which, as at 30 June 2026, were pending: as many as 152. For Hungary, by contrast, the figure is just over half that, at 85.
Compared with the first half of 2025, the number of adoptions from Colombia has risen, with the figure increasing from 29 to 38 in the first six months of the year. Furthermore, at the end of June, there were 108 pending adoption cases from the South American country.
Although negligible in absolute terms, the increase in adoptions from Sierra Leone is significant in relative terms, having tripled: from two in the first half of 2025 to eight, with 41 cases pending. No adoptions took place in the first six months from Russia and Belarus, but there are a total of 192 cases currently underway in the two countries: 27 and 165 respectively.
Opening up to singles
Finally, in our country, there has recently been a move to allow single people to adopt foreign children who have been abandoned. It was in fact March 2025 when the Constitutional Court issued judgement 33/2025, which ruled that the ban on the adoption of children residing abroad by unmarried individuals was unlawful. The Commission for International Adoptions has also implemented the ruling, updating the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on its website. ‘Single people may […] submit their application for international adoption to the Juvenile Court in their place of residence,’ the page states.
