Approximately 117 million people had been forcibly removed from their homes due to conflict, persecution, or other serious threats to their well-being by the end of 2023. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) report follows those who have been officially recognized as refugees, those who are still waiting for their asylum claims to be granted overseas, and those who have been internally displaced in their home countries.
German DW News collected how the patterns of forced migration have evolved over time, where people are fleeing from, and which countries are receiving the highest shares of displaced people. Here are the main findings:
The Number Of Displaced People Is Growing, Majority Of Them Internally Displaced
Eight out of every 1 000 people on the planet were displaced by force in 2014. The figure was 14 in 1000 in last year. This indicates that 58 million more people have been forced from their homes globally as a result of humanitarian crises in 2015 than in 2014. That is the same as all of Italy’s population.
UNHCR finds that 68.3 million of the approximately 117.3 million internally displaced persons were compelled to leave their homes and communities but stayed inside their home countries’ borders. That figure equals the entire population of the United Kingdom.
Only those who have been displaced due to violence or war are included in the UNHCR figure. According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC), climate change and natural disasters have resulted in an additional 7.7 million displaced people.
The Middle East And Africa are Home to the Majority of Internally Displaced People
Approximately 48 percent of the 68.3 million internally displaced people come from African nations, and around 21 percent come from the Middle East. Sudan is home to 9 million internally displaced people, or 14 percent of all internally displaced people worldwide. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (6.7 million), Yemen (4.5 million), and Syria (7.2 million) are among the other countries with large populations of internally displaced people.
Only three of the ten nations with the highest numbers of internally displaced people are not in Africa or the Middle East: five million people live in Colombia, South America; little bit more than four million people live in Afghanistan, and 3.7 million people live in Ukraine, Europe.
A Significant Internally Displaced Persons are in Several European Countries
In other regions, including Europe, a sizeable section of the population has also been forcibly removed from their homes. This is the situation in Cyprus, where over 240 000 people, or roughly 20 percent of the total population, are currently regarded as displaced. The majority of them had to leave their homes due to the five-decade territorial dispute with Turkey.
In Georgia, Azerbaijan, Serbia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, the circumstances are comparable. People are frequently forced to stay in temporary housing for decades or even generations following the initial events that drove them from their homes.
Just Ten Nations Responsible for almost the Total Number of Refugees
Nearly 43.4 million people live outside of their countries of origin as refugees or under other international protection programs, like short-term humanitarian stays, according to the UNHCR. That surpasses Poland’s total population.
Nine out of ten refugees worldwide are from the Palestinian Territories, Afghanistan, Syria, Venezuela, Ukraine, South Sudan, Sudan, Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Somalia.
If you want to browse more interesting data and charts, find in the UNHCR report here.
