CHAPTER 2: STATELESSNESS ACROSS THE GLOBE AND UNHCR’S ENGAGEMENT WITH STATELESSNESS 2.1 Introduction Statelessness was recognised as a global problem during the first half of the twentieth century when an increased incidence of the phenomenon became apparent. Statelessness, instead of disappearing, has developed over time to produce new situations. Today there are an estimated 12 million stateless persons worldwide. The scale of the problem has fluctuated over the years, with improvements in some regions offset by new problems in others. The large numbers at the beginning of the 1990s were gradually reduced as the States of the former Soviet Union granted citizenship to several hundreds of thousands of people. The numbers increased again, however, with developments in other parts of the world. Putting precise figures on the number of stateless people is inherently difficult because few countries have procedures to identify the stateless and collect comprehensive and reliable data in this field. Nevertheless the population data that UNHCR produces every June include available official statistics or estimates.26 While some regions have larger stateless populations than others, every State and continent is, or is potentially, affected by statelessness. With the full scope of statelessness across the globe only just becoming known, the problem is particularly acute in South East Asia, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and various countries in Africa. Because most of the countries of Latin America grant citizenship to all born on their territory, that region has the lowest incidence of people with no nationality. Countries with the greatest numbers of stateless people, for which estimates are known, are Iraq, Kenya, Myanmar, Nepal, Syria, Thailand, Estonia and Latvia. However, situations and rights of stateless persons in each country vary significantly and are not always easily compared. Before elaborating on the consequences of statelessness, it is useful to understand how people become stateless. 26 22 UNHCR data are based on census counts, surveys and other government data and estimates. Mapping statelessness