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Refugee Figures
UNHCR was set up in 1951 to help the estimated 1 million people still uprooted after World War II to return home. Since then, we have helped find durable solutions for some 50 million refugees and they remain our core constituency.
The latest figures available show that the number of refugees of concern to UNHCR stood at 10.5 million refugees at the beginning of 2009, down 8 percent from a year earlier.
A further 4.7 million registered refugees are looked after in some 60 camps in the Middle East by United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which was set up in 1949 to care for displaced Palestinians.
The refugees of concern to UNHCR are spread around the world, with more than half in Asia and 20 percent in Africa. They live in widely varying conditions, from well-established camps and collective centres to makeshift shelters or living in the open.
Most are in rural settings, but the number of urban refugees is growing. They all face three possible solutions: repatriation; local integration or resettlement.