Refugee numbers drop for first time in a decade

• The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) launched the agency’s flagship Global Trends Report on June 11.

• The global refugee number declined slightly during 2025 by 3 per cent to reach 41.6 million at the end of the year, including Palestine refugees under UNRWA’s mandate.

• Global forced displacement has decreased for the first time in a decade, though the figure remains unacceptably high and tens of millions of people are still trapped in prolonged exile with little prospect of rebuilding their lives.

Who is a refugee?

• Refugees are people forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as a result of who they are, what they believe in or say, or because of armed conflict, violence or serious public disorder.

• Many have been forced to flee with little more than the clothes on their back, leaving behind their homes, possessions, jobs and loved ones. 

• They may have suffered human rights violations, been injured in their flight, or seen family members or friends killed or attacked.

Internally Displaced People

• Internally Displaced People (IDPs) have been forced to flee their homes by conflict, violence, persecution or disasters, however, they remain within the borders of their own country.

• Uprooted from their homes and livelihoods, they often face dangerous conditions and continue to face risks even after fleeing for safety. 

• When IDPs do settle, places of refuge may lack adequate shelter, food, clean water or healthcare. Even where such services exist, the sudden influx of people can overwhelm them. It can be difficult for displaced people to find work, leaving them without an income to support themselves and their families.

Key points of the report:

• One in every 70 people, or 1.4 per cent of the entire world’s population, is now forcibly displaced.

• The global refugee population declined slightly by 3 per cent to reach 35.6 million at the end of the year. This includes 28.5 million refugees under UNHCR's mandate, including people in a refugee-like situation and 7.2 million other people in need of international protection. In addition, 6 million were Palestine refugees under UNRWA’s mandate.

• More than 70 per cent of refugees originated from Afghanistan, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and Venezuela. The largest hosting countries were Colombia, Germany and Turkey.

• The largest hosts of refugees and other people in need of international protection in 2025 were: Colombia (2.8 million), Germany (2.7 million), Turkey (2.4 million), Uganda (1.9 million), Iran (1.7 million), Chad (1.5 million) and Pakistan (1.3 million).

• In 2025, 5.4 million people escaped violence and persecution by fleeing to other countries.

• In 2025, 14.7 million people returned to their areas or countries of origin, including nearly 4.4 million refugees and 10.3 million IDPs, representing a 49 per cent increase compared to 2024. Refugee returns were the second highest since UNHCR first reported return statistics in 1965. About 92 per cent of all returns occurred in just seven countries: Congo (3.6 million), Sudan (3.5 million), Syria (3.3 million), Afghanistan (2 million), Ukraine (718,300) and Myanmar (415,200).

• Refugee returns were the second highest since records began 60 years ago, though many occurred under pressure and to precarious conditions at home.

• Internally Displaced People (IDPs) account for 58 per cent of all forcibly displaced people. At the end of 2025, as many as 68.7 million people remained internally displaced due to conflict and violence, a 7 per cent decrease from the end of 2024.

• Sudan remains the largest internal displacement globally with 9.1 million people still displaced within the country at the end of the year.

• About 4.5 million people are estimated to be stateless. The true number is likely to be much higher — many stateless populations are unregistered and invisible to official statistics.

• As many as 46,100 stateless people acquired a nationality during 2025 across 24 countries through naturalisation, legal reform, or dedicated statelessness determination procedures — a step toward the goal of ending statelessness.