The 2024 Global Trends report presents the most recent official statistics on refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced persons (IDPs), stateless people, and returned refugees for the year 2023. The data included in the report is sourced from governments, non-governmental organizations, and UNHCR.
Main messages:
- By the end of 2023, the global number of forcibly displaced people reached 117.3 million, 8 percent higher than the previous year. This includes 43.4 million refugees, 6.9 million asylum-seekers, and 68.3 million IDPs. The global figure corresponds to more than 1 in every 69 people in the world. Based on operational data, it is estimated that by the end of April 2024, the global number of forcibly displaced people likely surpassed 120 million.
- In 2023, a total of 27.2 million people were forced to flee, with one in four seeking refuge in another country. Conflict in Sudan led to the displacement of more than 7.2 million people, including 6 million IDPs and 1.2 million refugees. Escalating violence in Myanmar led to the displacement of 1.3 million people, while UNRWA estimates that up to 1.7 million people were displaced by conflict in the Gaza Strip. Additionally, 3.8 million people were internally displaced in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with 1.8 million IDPs estimated to have returned during the same period.
- Children account for 40 percent of all forcibly displaced people but make up 30 percent of the world’s population.
- At the end of 2023, approximately 75 percent of forcibly displaced people were living in countries with high-to-extreme exposure to climate-related hazards. Nearly half were living in countries where they also remained exposed to conflict.
- The global refugee population increased by 7 percent to reach 43.4 million at the end of 2023. This increase reflects new displacement, primarily from Sudan, as well as revised population figures in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Pakistan, and Germany. The global figure includes 31.6 million refugees and people in a refugee-like situations, 5.8 million other people in need of international protection under UNHCR’s mandate (predominantly from Venezuela), and 6 million Palestine refugees under UNRWA’s mandate.
- 73 percent of refugees under UNHCR’s mandate originate from just five countries. The largest numbers of refugees were from Afghanistan (6.4 million), Syria (6.4 million), Venezuela (6.1 million), Ukraine (6.0 million), and Sudan (1.5 million).
- Most refugees are in low- and middle-income countries, mainly in countries neighboring their own. Low- and middle-income countries hosted 75 percent of the world’s refugees and other people in need of international protection, while the Least Developed Countries provided asylum to 21 percent of the total. 69 percent of refugees and other people in need of international protection were hosted in neighboring countries at the end of 2023.
- The burden of hosting refugees is not equally distributed across countries. Globally, the Islamic Republic of Iran (3.8 million), Türkiye (3.3 million), Colombia (2.9 million), Germany (2.6 million) and Pakistan (2 million) hosted the largest refugee populations, including other people in need of international protection. Relative to their national populations, the island of Aruba and Lebanon hosted the largest number of refugees and other people in need of international protection, followed by Montenegro, Curaçao and Jordan.
- 66 percent of refugees were in protracted situations. At the end of 2023, an estimated 24.9 million refugees and other people in need of international protection were in 58 protracted situations, in 37 host countries.
- The global number of IDPs increased by 10 percent to 68.3 million people at the end of 2023, accounting for 58 percent of all forcibly displaced people. The largest numbers of IDPs were in Sudan (9.1 million), Syria (7.2 million), Colombia (6.9 million), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (6.7 million), and Yemen (4.5 million). Additionally, there were 7.7 million IDPs who remained displaced due to disasters at the end of 2023.
- There were 6.9 million asylum-seekers with pending claims at the end of 2023. The total number of new individual asylum applications registered was 3.6 million, a 40 percent increase on the previous year, with over half received in just five countries: the United States, Germany, Egypt, Spain, and Canada. Most of these applications were made by nationals of Venezuela, Colombia, Syria, Sudan, and Afghanistan.
- By the end of 2023, there were 4.4 million stateless people reported by UNHCR. About 1.3 million stateless people worldwide are also displaced, mostly Rohingya IDPs and refugees. 32,200 stateless people had their nationality confirmed or acquired citizenship during the year. Stateless people, including those displaced, are not included in the global number of forcibly displaced people.
- Nearly 1.1 million refugees returned to their countries of origin in 2023. Four out of five of those returning were Ukrainian or South Sudanese. There were 158,700 refugees resettled to third countries in 2023, 35 percent more than in 2022. A further 30,800 refugees acquired the citizenship of their host country during the year.
- 5.1 million IDPs returned to their place of origin in 2023. Nearly 62 percent of all IDP returns were in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (1.8 million) and Ukraine (1.3 million).