A new roadmap for collecting data on statelessness UNHCR’s latest Global Trends reported the global stateless (stateless persons and persons of undetermined nationality) population at 4.4 million people at the end of 2023. However, the actual number of stateless people is widely acknowledged to be much higher. The primary reasons for this gap include: • • • Approximately half of all countries don’t report data on statelessness, including countries with known stateless populations Some countries that report statelessness data only provide statistics for a portion of the known stateless population in their territories Data is often inconsistent when comparing between countries, because of differing criteria for who is considered to be stateless or of undetermined nationality Solving statelessness is a bigger challenge with limited data to measure its scope and scale. Ensuring reliable, comprehensive data is critical to understanding the current scope and nature of statelessness in the world, and essential to formulating policies, laws and actions to resolve it. That’s why UNHCR has prioritized the improvement of quantitative and qualitative data in the Global Action Plan to End Statelessness. Since the launch of the #IBelong Campaign, there have been many encouraging developments. The number of countries reporting statelessnessrelated data has increased from 77 in 2014 to 95 in 2023. As noted above, many States have invested in robust studies to better understand the nature and risks of statelessness in their territories and have begun to add stateless-specific questions to national censuses and other statistical surveys. One of the biggest achievements of the last decade is the adoption of the International Recommendations on Statelessness Statistics (IROSS) by the UN Statistical Commission in March 2023. These recommendations help guide the production of higherquality, harmonized statistics that are consistent and comparable across countries. Other notable achievements: • • • • • • • • 20 European countries (Albania, Austria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Lithuania, Malta, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United Kingdom) have conducted mapping studies or surveys to better understand the size and profile of the stateless population in their territory. The 2022 censuses in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan included questions related to stateless people. Panama’s 2023 census included questions about birth registration, and the results have allowed mapping populations that might be at risk of statelessness or of undetermined nationality. The 2019 Cartography of Persons at Risk of Statelessness in Cote d’Ivoire (CAPRA) provided a basis for reporting updated and more accurate official figures for stateless persons and persons at risk of statelessness. Mozambique is the process of conducting a qualitative study on statelessness in line with the pledge made in the 2019 High-level Segment on statelessness. The study is expected to be finalized by the end of 2024. Qualitative studies on statelessness have been carried out in countries including Botswana, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, and South Africa, helping inform identification and documentation efforts, as well as advocacy and resource mobilization activities. The Socioeconomic Survey of the Stateless Shona, conducted in 2019 as a joint collaboration between the Government of Kenya, UNHCR and the World Bank, helped to provide a baseline assessment of the socioeconomic comparisons between the then-stateless Shona minority group and non-stateless populations in Kenya, helping better understand the impacts of statelessness on communities and individuals. A study jointly conducted by the International Conference in the Great Lakes Region and UNHCR in 2022 investigated risks of statelessness among long-term refugees and made recommendations for addressing the situation in three countries in the region: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. #IBELONG 41