Chapter 2 Figure 12 | Refugees, people in a refugee-like situation and other people in need of international protection | 2015 - 2024 (end-year) Refugees People in a refugee-like situation Other people in need of international protection Number of people 30M 20M 10M 0M 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Estimated demographic composition of refugees UNHCR compiles data annually on the combined sexand age-distribution of the populations that UNHCR protects and/or assists. At end-2024, demographic data by age and sex was available for 79 per cent of refugees and people in a refugee-like situation and disaggregation by sex only was available for a further 14 per cent. Coverage of demographic data by age and sex for other people in need of international protection has increased from 68 per cent in 2023 to 86 per cent, with sex-disaggregated data available for a further one per cent of them. To fill these data gaps, statistical modelling is applied to impute the sex- and age-distribution of populations with missing demographic data.130 For refugees, people in a refugee-like situation and other people in need of international protection, the estimated percentage of refugee children is 41 per cent and 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 women and girls account for 50 per cent. Compared to the previous year, these two proportions remain similar despite changes in the number of refugees from Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan and Ukraine. To estimate the global number of children born into refugee status, UNHCR calculated estimates by imputing missing birth data for the years between 2018 to 2024.131 Between 2018 and 2024, approximately half of the data on how many children were born into refugee status was missing in the reported statistics. Using statistical modelling, UNHCR estimates that more than 2.3 million children were born as refugees between 2018 and 2024, equivalent to some 337,800 children per year. In 32 countries globally, the children of refugees born in the host country have the right to attain the citizenship of that country and are therefore not included in these estimates.132 As this imputation is based on several broad statistical assumptions, the results should be considered as estimates and not precise figures. 130 These models are generated using the available demographic data for a country of origin as a starting point. Where data for a particular country of asylum is missing, the values are estimated using statistical modelling from the available data for the same origin country in nearby countries of asylum. 131 A key assumption in the estimates is that forced displacement is likely to impact the fertility pattern of refugees. Refugees face a situation that is drastically different from that of people remaining in their country of origin and birth rates in the country of origin are not necessarily indicative of refugee populations that have fled these same countries. 132 See the definition of jus soli in the UNHCR glossary. 36 UNHCR > GLOBAL TRENDS 2024