As of mid-2024, Iran was the largest refugee-hosting country in the world. According to data available by the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR, there were nearly 3.8 million refugees in Iran. Turkey was second with more than 3.1 million. The data refers to the total number of refugees in a given country, not considering the date of their application for asylum or the date of their flight.

In 2024, Turkey was the country that hosted the highest amount of Syrian refugees, amounting up to 3.1 million refugees. Lebanon was second, hosting 775,000 Syrian refugees. The data refers to the total number of Syrian refugees in a given country, not considering the date of their application for asylum or the date of their flight.

As of mid-2024, Syria had the highest number of refugees who had fled the country. That year, about 6.25 million refugees had left the country, mainly due to the civil war that started in 2011. Second on the list is Ukraine after over six million people left the country since Russia's invasion in February 2022. The third highest number of refugees in the world came from Afghanistan after years of civil wars, instability, and Taliban regaining power in 2021. What are refugees? Refugees are people who have been forced to leave their country because of dangerous circumstances, such as war, violence, famine, or persecution. These circumstances arise from race, religious, ethnic, and/or political persecution, and refugees are unable to return to their home countries due to these conflicts. As of 2022, Turkey hosted the largest number of Syrian refugees. Refugees worldwide The number of refugees, internally displaced people, and asylum seekers worldwide has significantly increased since 2012, much due to the civil wars in Syria and Libya that started in 2011, but also due to increasing instability in the Sahel, the Sudan civil war, the Israel-Hamas war, and the Russia-Ukraine war. An internally displaced person is someone who is forced to leave their home but still stays in their country. They are not legally considered a refugee. Asylum seekers are people who leave their home country and enter another country to apply for asylum, which is internationally recognized protection.

Over 1.2 million refugees from Ukraine due to the Russian invasion fled to Germany as of January 2025. Furthermore, the second-highest number was recorded in Russia as of the end of 2024. In total, around 6.3 million Ukrainian refugees were registered across Europe and 6.8 million worldwide as of January 2025. Most of them fled the country by crossing the border with Poland. Ukrainian refugees in Germany As of January 2025, over 1.2 million refugees from Ukraine were recorded in Germany. The first increases in the number of Ukrainian refugees were registered in March and April 2022. At the end of January 2023, over one million refugees were officially counted by the authorities. Germany had the highest monthly financial allowance for Ukrainians who fled the war compared to other European countries as of June 2022. Temporary protection for Ukrainian refugees in the EU European Union (EU) members implemented the Temporary Protection Directive (TPD), which guaranteed access to accommodation, welfare, and healthcare to refugees from Ukraine. People fleeing the war had a right to a residence permit in the EU, enter the labor market, and enroll children in educational institutions. The protection is granted until March 4, 2026, but it can be extended in the future depending on the situation in the country.

In Fiscal Year 2022, about 7,810 refugees arrived in the United States from the Democratic Republic of Congo making it the greatest source of refugees for the U.S. The total number of refugee arrivals in the U.S. amounted to 25,465 during the same FY.

As of mid-2024, there were a total of nearly 2.4 million refugees under the UNHCR's mandate living in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Of these, the highest number was found in Lebanon, reaching nearly 780,000. Jordan followed behind with 661,000. At the same time, the highest number of refugees in the world came from Syria, which borders both Lebanon and Jordan.

Germany has long been involved with international asylum applications, especially in recent years. The most applications came from Syrian asylum seekers. These was followed by applications from Afghanistan and Turkey. Germany as a refuge choice Statistics on the number of asylum applicants in Germany are recorded by the BAMF, or the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge). The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has decreased refugee numbers in Europe, with travel bans across modes of transport and borders being closed. As the restrictions begin to lift, migration is beginning again. 2023 saw the highest number of applications for asylum since 2016. However, in 2024, numbers have decreased significanly again. Support for refugees remains a present issue, fraught with tension, legal complications and surrounded by constant debate with many believing that not enough is done to support them. Asylum decisions Not all asylum applications in Germany get accepted, due to various circumstances. Besides rejection, decisions regarding asylum may involve granting a legal status as a refugee, a grant of subsidiary protection or determining a deportation ban.

Uganda hosted the largest number of refugees in Africa as of 2023: Nearly 1.5 million. Sudan followed, providing asylum to just under 1.1 million individuals, while Ethiopia hosted around 880,000 refugees. In general, the East and Horn of Africa were host to most of the refugees in the continent.

This statistic shows the number of accepted first instance asylum applications in some of the European countries in 2018, broken down by country. In 2018, Germany accepted the largest number of asylum seekers with 75,940. Sweden and Belgium accepted the second and third most respectively, with roughly 10.6 and 9.7 thousand applicants, respectively.

In 2022, a total of than 16,415 refugee claimants in Canada came from Mexico, the most out of any country. Haiti, Turkey, Colombia, and Iran rounded out the top five countries for refugee claimants in Canada in that year.

During the fiscal year of 2023, 60,014 refugees were admitted to the United States. This is a significant increase from the fiscal year of 2022, when 25,465 refugees were admitted into the United States.

More than one third of the population in 28 countries worldwide thought that their countries should accept fewer refugees than they do today. However, opinions vary greatly from country to country. In Brazil, more than one in three supported accepting more refugees, while in Turkey, the country that hosts the highest number of refugees in the world, nearly 85 percent were in favor of accepting fewer.

In 2022, the refugee population from Venezuela had the highest asylum application approval rate in Mexico, with 93 percent. The asylum seekers from Honduras were the second refugee group with the highest acceptance rate, with more than 90% of approved applications by the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance. During that same year, the largest number of asylum seekers in Mexico originated from Honduras.

The total number of refugees in France has gradually increased for more than ten years. Since the 20th century, France has been considered an important host country for immigrants. During the past century, the country welcomed political refugees, immigrants from other European nations, and immigrants from the former French territories in Africa. The distribution of refugees in France and Europe More recently, the refugee crisis has partly shaped immigration in France. In 2023, there were 142,496 asylum applications in the country, compared to nearly 42,600 in 2008. Since 2015, the European Union (EU) has implemented the Relocation Scheme, which transfers persons needing international protection from one Member State to another. With most immigrants using the Mediterranean Route to reach Europe, France relocated 5,035 refugees from Greece and Italy in 2018, while Germany keeps being the European country to host most refugees in Europe. Refugees worldwide Migration is a common challenge for the members of the EU. But it is also a worldwide phenomenon. In 2023, Iran was the largest refugee-hosting country with more than 3.4 million refugees. The number of refugees worldwide, whether internally displaced persons or not, has increased since 2013. Ten years later, in 2023, the situation of countries such as South Sudan or Afghanistan has forced millions of people to flee and seek refuge elsewhere.

Since the 1950s, the number of forcibly displaced persons recognized by the United Nations has increased drastically; from around 2.1 million international refugees in 1951 to almost 123 million displaced persons in total in 2023. Annual figures are not reflective of the actual number of forcibly displaced people in the world, but rather the number of people identified as such by the UN. Preliminary figures for 2024 show that this figure may now reach the 125 million mark, with major new crises in Sudan and Palestine sending this figure higher, after the Russia-Ukraine War pushed this figure past 100 million people for the first time in 2022. UNHCR The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was founded in 1950 to deal with the large number of displaced persons in Europe in the aftermath of the Second World War. Since then, the scale and geographical scope of its operations has broadened significantly, as it works to provide humanitarian aid, logistical support, and long-term solutions to crises across the globe. The UNHCR played an instrumental role in facilitating or limiting the impact of many decolonization movements across Africa and Asia in the late 20th century, and, in recent decades, it has provided much-needed assistance in conflict areas, such as the Balkans in the 1990s, Afghanistan since the 2000s, and more recently in Syria and Yemen. Alongside the UNHCR, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was established in 1949 to provide similar assistance programs for Palestinian refugees and their descendants, and it is currently operational in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the State of Palestine, but its future remains uncertain after the Israeli parliament revoked its license to operate in the country in October 2024. Long-term crises Persistent instability in Sub-Saharan Africa has also been a major area of focus throughout the UNHCR's history, as economic and structural underdevelopment, alongside conflict and political instability, has created several refugee crises that are now in their fourth decade. While countries such as Colombia, Germany, and Turkey have, to varying degrees, successfully managed refugee crises in recent years, the economies of most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are not equipped to do so. Displacement has placed a great strain on several regions' already-struggling resources, and these are now also being affected by climate change. Countries such as Kenya, Sudan, and Uganda are home to camps or camp networks that house several hundred thousand refugees, with some of the largest in Kenya being established in the early 1990s.

As of 2025, a total of over 99 thousand refugees and asylum seekers from Myanmar were registered in India. Sri Lanka followed in terms of the highest number of refugees in India. India hosts over 273 thousand refugees.

By far, Syrians made up the largest group of refugees living in Sweden in 2022, counting 111,000 people. Ukrainians, who made up the second largest group, counted just below 47,000. Meanwhile, Afghans made up the third largest group with 26,000 refugees. The total number of refugees living in Sweden increased over the past ten years.

In 2023, the number of refugees residing in the Philippines increased by 78 refugees (+9.11 percent) compared to 2022. Therefore, the number of refugees residing in the Philippines reached a peak in 2023 with 934 refugees. Notably, the number of refugees residing continuously increased over the last years.Refugee population includes people who are outside of their country of origin for reasons of feared persecution, conflict, generalized violence, or other circumstances that have seriously disturbed public order and, therefore, require international protection. Country or territory of asylum is the country or territory where an asylum claim was filed and granted.Find more statistics on other topics about the Philippines with key insights such as rate of children immunized against measles in the age group of 12 to 23 months, death rate, and crude birth rate.

Estonia and Czechia had the highest number of Ukrainian refugees per thousand inhabitants during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, at 41 as of mid-September 2022. Furthermore, Poland received 36 Ukrainian refugees per thousand residents.

As of May 2024, Uganda hosted roughly 1.7 million refugees. Of the total, around 55 percent came from neighboring South Sudan. The Democratic Republic of the Congo ranked as the second leading origin of refugees living in Uganda. Approximately 518,400 Congolese citizens have searched for asylum in the bordering country so far. Uganda houses the highest number of individuals forcibly displaced in Africa as well as some of the largest refugee populations worldwide. Refugees hosted in Uganda Adjumani and Yumbe, northern Uganda districts, housed roughly one-third of the total refugees that sought asylum in the country. With a host population of approximately 736,400 people, the Yumbe district accounted for 15 percent of all refugees in Uganda. Adjumani’s population consisted of nearly half residents and half refugees. Refugee flows in Africa Over seven million refugees lived in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2021. The region has one of the largest refugee populations globally. In the last decade, the number of refugees living in Africa soared, mainly comprised of Africans fleeing to neighboring countries. The reasons for fleeing home were varied, ranging from internal conflicts to poverty and environmental disasters.