Figures at a glance
Figures at a glance
How many refugees and forcibly displaced people are there?
Globally, as of the end of December 2025, the most recent reporting period, there were 41.6 million refugees, 9 million asylum-seekers and 68.7 million people displaced due to conflict or violence within their own country (IDPs).
There are also about 4.5 million stateless people, who have been denied a nationality and lack access to basic rights such as education, health care, employment and freedom of movement.
At a time when more than 1 in every 70 people on Earth has been forced to flee, our work at UNHCR is more important than ever before.
Some Palestine refugees under UNRWA’s mandate in Gaza have also been internally displaced. In the figures above, internally displaced Palestine refugees are counted under the figures for 'Palestine refugees under UNRWA’s mandate' and 'IDPs', but are only counted once in the overall total of displaced people (117.8 million).
Global forced displacement trend over the last 20 years
At the end of December 2025, 117.8 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations or events seriously disturbing public order.
Refugee, IDP and asylum-seeker trends over the last 20 years
At the end of December 2025, there were 41.6 million refugees globally.
This includes 28.5 million refugees under UNHCR's mandate, 1.5 million people in a refugee-like situation and 7.2 million other people in need of international protection, as well as 6 million Palestine refugees under UNRWA's mandate.
At the end of December 2025, there were 68.7 million internally displaced people.
At the end of December 2025, there were 9 million asylum-seekers globally.
Where do refugees live?
Low- and middle-income countries hosted 68 per cent of the world’s refugees and other people in need of international protection.
65 per cent of refugees and other people in need of international protection lived in countries neighbouring their countries of origin.
Children account for 39 per cent of refugees under UNHCR’s mandate, people in refugee-like situation and other people in need of international protection.
Data on forced displacement and stateless populations
UNHCR tracks the number of people forced to flee and uses data and statistics to inform and optimize our work and the work of our partners to better protect, assist and provide solutions. This means that when a major displacement crisis erupts, we can predict how many people need help, what kind of help they need and how many staff we should deploy.
We release two flagship statistical reports on global forced displacement each year, the Global Trends report and the Mid-Year Trends report.
The Global Trends report, released annually in June, analyses changes and trends in forcibly displaced populations in the previous calendar year (from 1 January to 31 December). It provides key statistics on the global numbers of refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced people and stateless people, as well as their main host countries and countries of origin. The figures on this page are based on the Global Trends report.
In October/November each year, the Mid-Year Trends report is released to provide updated figures and analysis for the initial six months of the current year (from 1 January to 30 June). These figures are preliminary, and the final data is included in the subsequent Global Trends report released in June of the following year.
Page last updated: 11 June 2026
UNHCR updates the data on this page twice a year:
- In June, with official data from the end of the previous year (Global Trends report).
- In October/November, with preliminary data for the first six months of the current year (Mid-Year Trends report).
UNHCR data, analysis and publications
Visit the UNHCR data page to learn more about how UNHCR collects data, and to access our flagship publications, data visualizations and statistical databases.