Statistics for forcibly displaced
and all other people protected/
assisted by UNHCR
This report’s main focus is the analysis of changes
and trends in forced displacement from January to
December 2024 among people covered by UNHCR,
the UN Refugee Agency’s mandate.11 The data
presented are based on information received as of 21
May 2025 unless otherwise indicated.
At the end of 2024, the number of forcibly displaced
people worldwide was estimated at 123.2 million.12
This figure encompasses refugees under UNHCR’s
mandate, Palestine refugees under the United
Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine
Refugees in the Near East’s (UNRWA) mandate,
asylum-seekers, internally displaced people (IDPs)
and other people in need of international protection.
UNHCR also estimates the population that it
protects and/or assists. This includes those who
have been forcibly displaced (refugees, asylumseekers, internally displaced people and other
people in need of international protection); those
who have returned home within the previous year;
those who are stateless (most of whom are not
forcibly displaced); and other groups to whom
UNHCR has extended its protection or provided
assistance on a humanitarian basis. At the end of
2024, this figure stood at 129.9 million people.
These two categorizations are compared in the graphic
below. A detailed breakdown of the population that
UNHCR protects and/or assists is provided in the Annex
Tables by category and country.
The figures in this report are based on data reported by governments, nongovernmental organizations, UNHCR and other UN agencies. Numbers are rounded to
the closest hundred or thousand. As some adjustments may appear later in the year in
the Refugee Data Finder,13 figures contained in this report should be considered as
provisional and subject to change. Unless otherwise specified, the report does not
refer to events occurring after 31 December 2024.
View maps showing totals by population group and country.
View annex tables by category and country.
11 See the Methodology page of UNHCR’s Refugee Data Finder for a definition of each population group.
12 See footnote 1.
13 Idem.
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UNHCR > GLOBAL TRENDS 2024