Chapter 2
Comparing host country
situations
Responsibility-sharing among States in the
provision of protection and solutions for refugees
can take many forms, including providing funds for
relevant programmes in other, less prosperous,
host countries.
When it comes to hosting refugees, however,
the burden is not equally shared. Comparing the
number of people displaced across borders to
national income levels according to World Bank
classification, 34 it is clear that in the last decade,
high-income countries never hosted more than
19 per cent of this population. In 2019, they
hosted 17 per cent. Low-income countries, on the
other hand, consistently hosted around 20 per
cent per year.
In 2010, upper-middle income countries –
including Turkey, Colombia, the Islamic Republic
of Iran, Lebanon and Jordan – hosted 16 per cent
of refugees. By the end of 2019, they hosted 44
per cent of refugees and Venezuelans displaced
abroad. The share hosted by lower middle-income
countries fell during the same period.
Comparing the size of a refugee population with
that of a host country can help measure the impact
of hosting that population. Figure 12 helps to shed
light on some of the major displacement situations
of our time. Five of the 10 countries in the figure
are directly affected by the Venezuela crisis and
three by the Syria crisis. Taking into account
Venezuelans displaced abroad, the Caribbean
islands of Aruba and Curaçao rank 1st and 3rd on
the list, with 156 and 99 displaced persons per
1,000 inhabitants, respectively. 35 Lebanon, Jordan
and Turkey rank 2nd, 4th and 5th when comparing
the number of refugees they host in relation to
their national population size. 36 The only countries
appearing in the top-10 list per 1,000 inhabitants
yet not affected by the Syria or Venezuela crisis are
Uganda and Chad.
Figure 12 | People displaced across borders per 1,000 host country inhabitants | end-2019
Aruba
156
Lebanon
134
Curaçao
99
Jordan
69
Turkey
43
35
Colombia
Uganda
31
Guyana
28
Panama
28
Chad
28
*Limited to countries hosting at least 1,000 people. Excludes Palestine refugees under UNRWA's mandate.
34 Income groupings are from the World Bank: http://databank.
worldbank.org/data/download/site-content/OGHIST.xls
UNHCR > GLOBAL TRENDS 2019
35 National population data are from United Nations, Department
of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, “World
population prospects: The 2019 revision”, New York, 2019. See:
https://population.un.org/wpp/
36 Figures for Lebanon and Jordan exclude Palestine refugees under
UNRWA’s mandate. Lebanon hosted 476,000 and Jordan almost
2.3 million registered Palestine refugees at the end of 2019.
25