Global Trends 2024
Syrian refugees Batool, 9, and her brother Abdulaziz, 7, in the Zaatari refugee camp, Jordan.
Global Trends 2024
Syrian refugees Batool, 9, and her brother Abdulaziz, 7, in the Zaatari refugee camp, Jordan.
At the end of 2025, an estimated 117.8 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced due to persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and events seriously disturbing the public order.
Global forced displacement fell during 2025, for the first time in a decade. The 2025 figure represents a decrease of 5.4 million people or 4 per cent compared to the end of 2024. This change reflects a sharp increase in the returns of refugees and IDPs in some of the world’s largest displacement situations, including Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and Syria. However, many of the returns occurred under adverse circumstances and the reintegration conditions remain extremely challenging.
One in every 70 people, or 1.4 per cent of the entire world’s population, is now forcibly displaced.
At the end of 2025, 117.8 million people were forcibly displaced.
This equates to 1 in every 70 people on Earth.
Displacement nearly doubled during the last decade.
The search for peace must be at the heart of all efforts to find long-lasting solutions for refugees and others forced to flee their homes.
People forcibly displaced worldwide | 2015 – 2024
Key displacement situations in 2024
International boundary
Armistice or international administrative line
Other line of separation
Sudan crisis
The war in Sudan is the world’s largest displacement crisis.
A total of 14.3 million Sudanese people remained displaced at the end of 2024. This was 3.5 million more people than 12 months prior and represents nearly one in three of the national population.
Pictured: Newly arrived Sudanese refugees in the border town of Adre, Chad. © UNHCR/Andrew McConnell
Solutions for forced displacement rose in 2024
Solutions for refugees and internally displaced people all increased during 2024, with refugee returns the highest reported in more than two decades (1.6 million). However, underlying these positive trends with each solution are concerns about the inherent protection risks to forcibly displaced people and the longer-term sustainability of these solutions.
In the past year, 92 per cent of the 1.6 million refugee returns were to only four countries: Afghanistan, Syria, South Sudan and Ukraine. Many Afghan, Syrian and South Sudanese refugees have returned in adverse conditions and arrived in extremely fragile situations. In Ukraine, despite the war entering its fourth year, many vulnerable refugees have chosen to return partly due to challenges in accessing rights and services in host countries. In Afghanistan, returnees have arrived to a country gripped with pervasive poverty, soaring unemployment, severely inadequate public services and widespread food insecurity.
The past year also saw the highest number of refugees resettled to third countries for more than 40 years (188,800). In addition, almost 88,900 refugees obtained their host country’s citizenship or were granted permanent residence in 2024.
More than 8.2 million IDPs also returned to their area of origin in 2024, the second highest total ever recorded. But in the absence of peace and stability in their country, many IDPs remain trapped in cycles of returns followed by new displacement and conflicts are becoming increasingly protracted. Many of these returns therefore may not be sustainable.
Spotlight situations: Three displacement crises in focus
Syria
People displaced by climate change are “climate refugees”
Myanmar
The Sahel
Security details
Security arrangements will be in place and attendees should allow time to pass through security each morning.
All participants must register online through the Indico link provided by UNHCR to invited participants. Upon verification of their invitation status, participants will be accredited and receive an electronic event badge (e-badge) containing a QR code. Participants must present their e-badge on their mobile device at the entrance to Palexpo. Alternatively, a printed copy of the QR code may be used.
On Wednesday 13 December, access to the plenary will be restricted to those with a plenary badge. However, access will be open to all registered participants on 14 and 15 December.
A bakery employee places a cheesecake on the conveyor belt ready for packaging.
A photograph of Marc Schulman and his late father Eli Schulman, founder of Eli's Cheesecake.
An Eli's employee prepares at tray of batter in the factory bakery.
Return to Syria
The fall of the government on 8 December dramatically shifted the dynamics surrounding refugee returns to Syria, with a growing number of refugees living in neighbouring countries expressing a positive intention to return home.
Pictured: Syrian refugees arrive at the Cilvegözü – Bab Al-Hawa border crossing between Türkiye and Syria to complete a voluntary repatriation process before returning home to Syria. © UNHCR/Emrah Gürel
Forcibly displaced populations
Refugees
Marc Schulman is the President and CEO of Eli's Cheesecake Company, where 30 per cent of the workforce are refugees.
Earthquake in Afghanistan
Families are struggling to survive after a devastating earthquake flattened entire villages in western Afghanistan.
Over one thousand people have died. Thousands more have lost their homes and livelihoods – and the number of people is expected to rise even further.
UNHCR is on the ground responding to rising humanitarian needs.
This latest disaster comes on top of years of conflict, drought, and economic crisis. As the winter season approaches, your support is vital.
Afghanistan. Herat earthquake.
could provide family tents to two displaced Afghan families
could provide a package of essential relief supplies, including blankets, a bucket, a cooking set and gas cylinder, to three Afghan families displaced by the earthquake
could provide a dignity kit including soap, sanitary napkins and underwear to three Afghan families affected by the recent earthquake
UNHCR Annual Global Trends Report
DATA AND STATISTICS
UNHCR annual Global Trends report 2022
UNHCR's Global Trends report presents key statistical trends and the latest official statistics on refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced and stateless persons.
Ongoing and new conflicts have driven displacement across the world in 2022, seeing the largest ever increase between years according to UNHCR’s statistics on forced displacement.
With over 108.4 million people forcibly displaced by the end of 2022, the international community must work together to support and show solidarity with people forced to flee.
Internally displaced people (IDPs)
Since 1950, we have faced multiple crises on multiple continents, and provided vital protection and assistance to refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced and stateless people, many of whom have nobody left to turn to.
We help to save lives and build better futures for millions forced from home.
Resources related to the Global Refugee Forum 2023:
For Marc Schulman, staying true to his father’s principles and empowering refugees has proven to be a recipe for success and one that he believes others should follow. “The individuals who've come to Eli’s as refugees, that have overcome so much to get to this country, are just making tremendous contributions to our success,” he said.
“Our recommendation to any business – and certainly in our Chicago community – is that it’s really worth the investment.”
Asylum-seekers
Global Refugee Forum 2023 resources
Find information and services for refugees, asylum-seekers and stateless persons
Some Palestine refugees under UNRWA’s mandate in Gaza have also been internally displaced. In these figures, they are counted in both the internally displaced people total, and the global total of refugees. However, they are only counted once in total number of displaced people (123.2 million people).
Text and media 4 - Copy
"There is so much talent in the camp. We just need more opportunities to showcase them."
"Basketball is my favorite sport," says Doris, a refugee from South Sudan now living in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. "It also keeps youth in the camp away from drugs and for girls it keeps them away from early pregnancies."
A humanitarian system at breaking point
UNHCR and the broader humanitarian community are facing detrimental funding cuts, that will severely impact millions of people globally.
Without sufficient funding, there will not be enough food assistance and basic shelter support for displaced people. Protection services, including safe spaces for refugee women and girls at risk of violence, are likely to be terminated. Communities that have generously hosted forcibly displaced people for years will be left without the support they need. And, perhaps most critically, hopes for returns will either not materialize or the return will not be dignified and will not be accompanied by an increase in adequate services in countries of origin. As a result, people that do return may have no choice but to leave again.
For the number of forcibly displaced people to reduce, meaningful progress is required on the root causes – conflict, disregard for the basic tenets of International Humanitarian Law, other forms of violence and persecution.
In the meantime, resources to meet urgent humanitarian needs, to support host countries, to protect people from the risks of dangerous onward movements and to help refugees and other forcibly displaced people find durable solutions are more essential than ever.
The consequences of inaction will be borne by those who can least afford it.
Without sufficient funding, there will not be enough food assistance and basic shelter support for displaced people.
Download the report and annexes
Text and media 53
Global Trends 2025
UNHCR's Global Trends report presents the latest numbers of refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced and stateless persons worldwide.
Download the Global Trends report
Annexes and raw data
About the UNHCR Global Trends and Mid-Year Trends reports
UNHCR releases 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.
In October 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.
