Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Refugees
The number of refugees under UNHCR’s
mandate is almost double that of 2012 and
two thirds come from 5 countries
The global refugee population stood at 25.9 million
at the end of 2018, including 5.5 million Palestinian
refugees under UNRWA’s mandate, and is now at the
highest level ever recorded. The focus of this report is
the 20.4 million refugees under UNHCR’s mandate16
and, unless otherwise stated, all references to
refugees in this document refer to this population.
The refugee population under UNHCR’s mandate
has nearly doubled since 2012 when it stood at
10.5 million. Over the course of 2018, this
population increased by about 417,100 or 2 per
cent. While this represents the seventh year in a
row that the refugee population has increased, it is
the smallest rise since 2013. The many new arrivals
and registrations of refugees were partially offset
by returns and adjustments following verification
exercises, with the result being a small increase in
the overall population size.
unhcr > Global trends 2018
While there was only a small increase of 1 per cent in
the refugee population in sub-Saharan Africa, this
disguised wide sub-regional variations such as a small
decrease in Central Africa and the Great Lakes and an
increase of 13.7 per cent in West Africa [Table 1]. The
new registrations of Syrian refugees in Turkey meant
that the proportion of all refugees under UNHCR’s
mandate hosted in Turkey alone increased to 18 per
cent while the rest of Europe hosted an additional
14 per cent. The situation in Asia and the Pacific
remained relatively stable in 2018 after the large flows
seen in 2017, and there was a small decrease in the
refugee population in the Middle East and North
Africa. There was also a small decline in the registered
refugee population in the Americas, caused mainly by
the departure of Colombian refugees from the
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
16 This figure includes some 243,000 individuals in refugee-like
situations, with about 58,800 in the Bolivarian Republic of
Venezuela, 48,900 in Thailand and 50,000 in Ecuador.
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