Chapter 1
Figure 1 | Forcibly Displaced People | 2020 – April-2025 (mid- and end-year)
130M
120M
110M
100M
Number of people
90M
80M
70M
60M
50M
40M
30M
20M
10M
0
end-20
mid-21
end-21
Internally displaced people
Asylum-seekers
mid-22
end-22
mid-23
Other people in need
of international protection
The global refugee population decreased in 2024
by 613,600 (-1 per cent) to 42.7 million, including
31 million refugees under UNHCR’s mandate,
5.9 million other people in need of international
protection and 5.9 million Palestine refugees
under the mandate of UNRWA. The decrease in the
number of refugees globally reflects lower estimates
of Afghan refugees, fewer Syrian refugees, and
updated reporting of Ukrainians.18 By contrast, the
number of Sudanese refugees increased by nearly
600,000 to 2.1 million due to ongoing hostilities
across the country.
Internally displaced people (IDPs) continue to
constitute the majority of all people that have been
forced to flee globally (60 per cent). According to
data by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre
(IDMC), 73.5 million people remained displaced
within their own country at the end of 2024 as a
consequence of conflicts, an increase of 6.3 million.
end-23
mid-24
end-24
Apr-25
Refugees under UNHCR’s mandate
Palestine refugees under UNRWA’s mandate
The increase was driven by conflict intensifications
in Sudan and Myanmar, further escalations of
indiscriminate gang violence in Haiti and revised IDP
population estimates in Colombia.
During 2024, at least 4.8 million people sought
international protection, 13 per cent fewer than in
2023. This figure includes those that applied for
asylum on an individual basis (3.1 million), were
recognized through group procedures (835,600)
or were granted temporary protection (954,600).19
The lower overall figure reflects fewer people being
granted temporary protection and underreporting
of statistics.20 The number of asylum-seekers
pending a decision on their individual applications
stood at 8.4 million at end-2024, the highest ever
recorded, surging by 22 per cent from 6.9 million
the year before.
Refugee and IDP returns rose in 2024, with a year-onyear increase of 60 per cent. Most of them took place
18 Moreover, as of mid-2023 an estimated 1.2 million Ukrainians were recorded in the Russian Federation under different legal forms of stay
(other than refugee or temporary asylum status) and reported by UNHCR as people in a refugee-like situation. However, this figure has not
been updated since June 2023, and therefore can no longer be included in UNHCR’s official statistics for end of 2024.
19 Temporary protection granted to Ukrainians does not necessarily mean new displacement since it could include reapplications or reactivations
from the refugees who were already granted refugee status following temporary visits to Ukraine as well as duplicated registrations across
countries. Furthermore, Ukrainians that have been granted temporary protection may also have lodged individual asylum applications. See
Ukraine Refugee Situation: Population movements, Factsheet #2, UNHCR.
20 See footnote 9.
UNHCR > GLOBAL TRENDS 2024
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