Welcome to UNHCR’s Refugee Population Statistics Database
The database contains information about forcibly displaced populations spanning more than 70 years of statistical activities. It covers displaced populations such as refugees, asylum-seekers and internally displaced people, including their demographics. Stateless people are also included, most of who have never been displaced. The database also reflects the different types of solutions for displaced populations such as repatriation or resettlement.
This website is based on three data sources:
- UNHCR data collected through its annual statistical activities with some data going back as far as 1951, the year UNHCR was created.
- Data provided by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Information is limited to registered Palestine refugees under UNRWA’s mandate.
- Data provided by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC). Information is limited to people displaced within their country due to conflict or violence.
For methodological explanations, data limitations and coverage, visit the Methodology page.
More than two thirds of all refugees under UNHCR’s mandate and Venezuelans displaced abroad come from just five countries (as of mid-2021).
| Syrian Arab Republic | 6.8 million |
| Venezuela | 4.1 million |
| Afghanistan | 2.6 million |
| South Sudan | 2.2 million |
| Myanmar | 1.1 million |
Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees, with 3.7 million people. Colombia is second with more than 1.7 million, including Venezuelans displaced abroad (as of mid-2021).
| Turkey | 3.7 million |
| Colombia | 1.7 million |
| Uganda | 1.5 million |
| Pakistan | 1.4 million |
| Germany | 1.2 million |
An estimated 35 million (42%) of the 82.4 million forcibly displaced people are children below 18 years of age (end-2020).
Between 2018 and 2020, an average of between 290,000 and 340,000 children were born into a refugee life per year.
Some 126,700 refugees returned to their countries of origin during the first half of 2021 while 16,300 were resettled (with or without UNHCR’s assistance).
Developing countries host 85 per cent of the world’s refugees and Venezuelans displaced abroad. The Least Developed Countries provide asylum to 27 per cent of the total.
Data on some 4.3 million stateless people residing in 93 countries was reported at mid-2021. The true global figure is estimated to be significantly higher.
73 per cent of refugees and Venezuelans displaced abroad lived in countries neighbouring their countries of origin.
Refugee Data Finder
An analysis tool that contains data on forcibly displaced and stateless populations, their demography and the solutions some of them found.
Download the Refugee Data mobile app
The UNHCR Refugee Data app showcases forced displacement and statelessness statistics over the last 20 years by country of asylum and origin.