Fig.6 Number of refugees per 1,000 inhabitants| end - 2015
Lebanon
183
Jordan
87
Nauru
50
Turkey
32
Chad
26
Djibouti
22
South Sudan
21
Mauritania
19
Sweden
17
Malta
17
of refugees. Other major refugee-producing countries at the end of 2015 included Ukraine (321,300),
Pakistan17 (297,800), Burundi (292,800), Rwanda
(286,400), and Iraq (264,100).
Sharing the Responsibility
of Hosting Refugees
The size of a host country’s economy, development
level, and population are important considerations
in measuring the impact of hosting refugees. The
developing regions18 continue to receive refugees
disproportionately, with most hosted by low- and
middle-income countries. For three years in a row,
countries in these regions have hosted an average
of 86 per cent of all refugees under UNHCR’s mandate, compared with about 70 per cent two decades
ago. By the end of 2015, countries in developing regions hosted 13.9 million of the world’s total refugee
population, compared with the 2.2 million hosted
by countries in developed regions. In particular, the
Least Developed Countries19 – those least able to
meet the development needs of their own citizens,
let alone the humanitarian needs often associated
with refugee crises – provided asylum to over 4 million refugees.
Gross Domestic Product (Purchasing Power Parity)
per capita20 – the GDP (PPP) per capita – allows the
size of a refugee population to be broadly compared
to a host country’s national economic development.
Unsurprisingly, given the large numbers of refugees
and the levels of socio-economic development of
18
UNHCR Global Trends 2015
countries in developing regions, by the end of 2015
the 30 countries with the largest numbers of refugees per GDP (PPP) per capita were all in developing regions. The only exception was the Russian
Federation, which was in 30th place with 12 refugees
per 1 USD GDP (PPP) per capita. These 30 countries also included 20 States classified as Least
Developed Countries.
Figure 5 shows the Democratic Republic of the
Congo at the top of this list, with 471 refugees per
1 USD GDP (PPP) per capita at the end of 2015 –
implying that the country’s economic resources and
capacities to host refugees are strained. With 453
and 317 refugees per 1 USD GDP (PPP) per capita at
the end of 2015, Ethiopia and Pakistan were second
and third, respectively. Although Turkey has significant economic resources, it is among the top-ranked
countries in terms of the ratio of GDP to refugees due
to the 2.5 million refugees it is hosting.
Another way to measure a refugee population is
to look at its size compared to the national population21 of the host country Figure 6 . As in the previous
17 These refugees live primarily in Afghanistan, with smaller
numbers in Italy (9,200), Canada (7,200), United Kingdom
(6,300), Germany (4,700), Australia (3,300) and the United States
of America (3,100).
18 See http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49regin.htm
for a list of countries included under each region.
19 See http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49regin.htm
for a list of Least Developed Countries.
20 Source for Gross Domestic Product (Purchasing Power Parity):
International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database,
April 2015 (accessed 6 May 2015).