The State of Refugees

[Issue #27] After a break and a month-long trip to Mumbai, I am super excited to be back in Lyon and continue our newsletter! This week we will dive deep into the current state of refugees!

Mar 26, 2024

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30,510,629

That’s the number of refugees in 2023. These are the people who left their homeland to find a safe refuge in a foreign country!

According to UNHCR - The UN Refugee Agency, there are currently 110M forcibly displaced worldwide. While a vast majority (almost 60%) are internally displaced the rest are refugees (30.5M) or seeking asylum!

Check out the visual below and top insights to learn more about this topic!

Top Insights

52% originate from just three countries

More than half of refugees under UNHCR's mandate originate from only three countries.

Syrian Arab Republic - 6.5 million
Afghanistan - 6.1 million
Ukraine - 5.9 million

3.4M+ hosted in the Islamic Republic of Iran and Türkiye

Iran and Turkey host the most refugees in the world, each hosting around 3.4 million people. Germany comes in third with 2.5 million refugees, and Pakistan rounds out the top four with 2.1 million refugees.

Islamic Republic of Iran - 3.4 million
Türkiye - 3.4 million
Germany - 2.5 million
Pakistan - 2.1 million

75% hosted in low- and middle-income countries

Three-quarters (75%) of the world's refugees and people needing international protection are hosted in low- and middle-income countries. Among them, the Least Developed Countries take in one-fifth (20%) of the total.

Few additional insights on this topic…

In late 2023, the UNHCR released an indicator report. Here are some of the key findings from the report:

Reductions in the growth rate of the total number of refugees and other people in need of international protection after the affirmation of the GCR in 2018 reversed, with a record-high number of refugees in 2022
Since 2016, in the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, and Europe, the number of refugees and other people in need of international protection increased, while in the other regions, they remained relatively stable.
Three out of every four refugees were hosted in low- and middle-income countries near their countries of origin.
55% of the world’s refugee population was hosted in 10 countries, while nearly one in 10 lived in Türkiye.
Increasing threats to global peace and security forced more people to flee for safety.
Children remained disproportionately affected by forced displacement around the world.
80% of the world’s refugee population was hosted by countries that together represented only 19% of the world’s income.

While the statistics paint a grim picture, there is reason for hope.

In the first semester of 2023, just over 404,000 refugees returned to their countries of origin -- more than double compared to the same period in 2022.

The number of refugees who resettled has increased, although the resettlement cases in the first half of 2023 were only 3% of the 2 million people who need to be resettled globally.

… and that’s our Insight Scoop for this week! Hope you learned something new today :)

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