Haddad, 2003). A significant rise in the population of stateless individuals and stateless nations has been triggered by the modern international processes and internal social conflicts within a nation. The International Convention on the Status of Stateless Person of 1945 describes a stateless person as a person who is not a citizen as defined by the laws of any state. This is a serious issue because the worst outcome of statelessness is the lack of protection by any caring state to the individuals that live on its territory. The existing level of statelessness amongst countries together with the wider economic, social and political dynamics have increased significantly (Kerwin et al., 2020; Belton, 2013). The United Nations High Commissioner of refugees (UNHCR) estimates that there were 10 million stateless individuals in 2015. Saleem et al. (2026); Mbaku (2024); Strode & Khanna, (2021); Alam & Hasan, (2024) and Marandett (2024) said that, The 2024 annual reports of UNHCR revealed that there were 4.4 million stateless individuals and those whose citizenship was not determined. However, the mentioned numbers are highly probable to be underreported as a result of the nature of the data collection. Studies of the Institute of Statelessness and Inclusiveness show that the global stateless population in 2014 was concentrated to a population of only 20 countries with more than 10,000 stateless people. The fact that stateless people are distributed across these nations is outlined below. Table 1. Most Stateless Persons in 20 Countries Country Number Myanmar 810,000 Côte d’Ivoire 700,000 Thailand 506,197 Latvia 267,789 Dominican Republic Russian Federation Syria 210,000 178,000 160,000 Iraq 120,000 Kuwait 93,000 Estonia 91,281 Saudi Arabia 70,000 Malaysia 40,000 Ukraine 33,271 Brunei Darussalam Sweden Kenya Germany Kyrgyzstan Notes The Rohingya ethnic group does not have citizenship under the 1982 Citizenship Law Migrants of Burkinabe descent were not entitled to citizenship after independence from France The “hill tribes” consisting of various ethnic groups People rendered stateless after the dissolution of the Soviet Union Native-born or Haitian-descendant persons affected by retroactive changes in nationality criteria People rendered stateless after the dissolution of the Soviet Union Kurds rendered stateless following the 1962 census Faili Kurds declared stateless by the 1980 decree revoking the nationality of “foreign-origin” persons deemed disloyal to the state Bidoon people who failed to register when Gulf states first developed nationality laws People rendered stateless after the dissolution of the Soviet Union Bidoon people who failed to register when Gulf states first developed nationality laws Ethnic Indians (mainly Tamils) brought to Malaysia generations ago under British rule People rendered stateless after the dissolution of the Soviet Union 20,524 Ethnic Chinese 20,450 20,000 11,709 Mostly arising in the context of migration Members of minority groups Mostly arising in the context of migration People rendered stateless after the dissolution of the Soviet Union 11,425 ISSN 2776-1266 (print), 2776-1266 (online) Copyright © 2026, Journal of Public Representative and Society Provision Under the license CC BY-SA 4.0 | 183