STATELESSNESS AROUND THE WORLD A stateless person is someone who is not recognized as a national of any country. UNHCR data received from 96 countries indicates that, at the end of 2021, there were an estimated 4.3 million stateless people or persons of undetermined nationality. However, it is recognized that the real number of stateless people is much higher. Based on these figures, the largest known populations of those who are stateless or of undetermined nationality can be found in Côte d’Ivoire (931,166), Bangladesh (918,841), Myanmar (600,000), Thailand (561,527) and Latvia (195,190). STATELESS PEOPLE AND PEOPLE WITH UNDETERMINED NATIONALITY UNHCR, 2021 The main causes of statelessness are diverse and include: Discrimination on the basis of sex, gender, ethnicity, race, religion or language Gaps in nationality laws Main causes of statelessness State succession Administrative obstacles to acquisition and lack of nationality and birth documentation The right to a nationality is a fundamental human right that implies the right of each individual to acquire, change and retain a nationality. States have a responsibility to remove discrimination from their nationality laws, put in place safeguards to prevent statelessness, take action to reduce the number of stateless persons and provide adequate protection to stateless persons in their territory. To learn more about UNHCR #IBelong Campaign 6