According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), there were 122.1 million forcibly displaced people by the end of April 2025 — up from 120 million at the same time last year, but down from the record high of 123.2 million at the end of 2024. In a report released Thursday, UNHCR stated that the number of people displaced by war, violence, and persecution worldwide is "untenably high," especially given the drying up of humanitarian funding. The only bright spot is a pickup in some returns, notably to Syria.
Large armed conflicts in Sudan, Myanmar, and Ukraine remain the main drivers of displacement, as well as the continued failure to stop the fighting.
“We are living in a time of intense volatility in international relations, with modern warfare creating a fragile, harrowing landscape marked by acute human suffering,” said Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, in a statement.
“We must redouble our efforts to search for peace and find long-lasting solutions for refugees and others forced to flee their homes.”
Forcibly displaced people include internally displaced people (IDPs), who grew sharply by 6.3 million to 73.5 million at the end of 2024, as well as refugees and asylum seekers, totaling 45.2 million. The overall record figure of 123.2 million also includes 5.9 million other people in need of international protection.
“The world is falling apart. In 2024, we saw huge numbers of people displaced in all corners of the world. That fact that over 123 million people were forced from their homes at the end of 2024 is a damning verdict on our ability to defend families from blunt violence,” said Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), reacting to the new global displacement figures.
“The failure of global diplomacy and of conflict resolution efforts — and more than anything the failure to protect civilians — is astounding.”
According to the UNHCR report, Sudan was the world’s largest forced displacement crisis at the end of last year, with 14.3 million refugees and IDPs, surpassing Syria (with 13.5 million) and followed by Afghanistan (with 10.3 million) and Ukraine (with 8.8 million).
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Myanmar remain among the world’s largest situations of forced displacement, having both seen brutal fighting in 2024 and the first months of 2025.
By the end of 2024, 7.4 million Congolese had been forcibly displaced. The prolonged conflict between the Congolese army and multiple non-state armed groups has been marked by continuous grave human rights violations against civilians, creating one of the world's largest internal displacement crises.
The humanitarian crisis in Myanmar is one of the most complex and protracted in the world, with more than 5.1 million people forcibly displaced. As of March 2025, 3.6 million people were internally displaced within Myanmar, while 1.5 million had fled the country.
Contrary to widespread perceptions in wealthier regions, the report found that 67 percent of refugees stay in neighboring countries and that low- and middle-income countries host 73 percent of the world’s refugees. In fact, 60 percent of people forced to flee never leave their own country.
At the end of 2024, Iran was the largest host country for refugees in the world, with 3.5 million refugee residents. Turkey followed with 2.9 million refugees. Colombia hosted 2.8 million refugees, and Germany hosted over 2.7 million. Uganda was also among the top five host countries in 2024, with 1.8 million refugees.
Relative to their national populations, Aruba (one in six), Lebanon (one in seven), and Chad (one in sixteen) hosted the largest number of refugees.
Children are disproportionately impacted by global forced displacement. According to the report, children make up around 29 percent of the world’s population but account for about 40 percent of all forcibly displaced people.
The number of forcibly displaced people has nearly doubled in the last decade, yet funding for the UN Refugee Agency remains at roughly the same level as in 2015, amidst brutal and ongoing cuts to humanitarian aid.
The UN agency warns that this situation is untenable and leaves refugees and others fleeing danger even more vulnerable.
“Even amid the devastating cuts, we have seen some rays of hope over the last six months,” Grandi said.
“Nearly 2 million Syrians have been able to return home after over a decade uprooted. The country remains fragile, and people need our help to rebuild their lives again.”
In total, 9.8 million forcibly displaced people returned home in 2024, including 1.6 million refugees — the most in more than two decades — and 8.2 million IDPs. In the past year, 92 percent of the 1.6 million refugee returns were to only four countries: Afghanistan, Syria, South Sudan, and Ukraine.
However, many of these returns happened amid adverse political or security climates, leaving them in extremely fragile situations.
For example, a large number of Afghans were forced to return to Afghanistan in 2024, arriving home in dire circumstances. They arrived in a country gripped by pervasive poverty, soaring unemployment, severely inadequate public services, and widespread food insecurity.
In Ukraine, despite the war entering its fourth year, many vulnerable refugees have chosen to return, partly due to challenges accessing rights and services in host countries. Most refugee returnees in South Sudan fled the fierce war in Sudan.
The report calls for continued funding of UNHCR programs that save lives, assist refugees and IDPs returning home, and reinforce basic infrastructure and social services in host communities as an essential investment in regional and global security.
Regarding the future outlook for the remainder of 2025, UNHCR noted that much depends on the dynamics of key situations: Whether peace, or at least a cessation of fighting, can be achieved, particularly in DRC, Sudan, and Ukraine; whether the situation in South Sudan deteriorates any further; and whether conditions for the return of refugees improve, particularly in Afghanistan and Syria.
NRC’s Egeland said the figures documented by UNHCR must be a wake-up call for political and military leaders everywhere, given that they are failing the communities they are supposed to protect.
“Despite the immense suffering of displaced people, we are now seeing many countries turn inwards, making drastic cuts to humanitarian funding. Nationalism and xenophobia are on the rise: once generous donor nations are becoming increasingly self-interested,” he said.
“Governments are spending money on armaments that should have been used on refugees and on protecting the vulnerable. Aid budgets are plummeting. We are already doing more with less – but we cannot do this indefinitely.”
Further information
Full text: UNHCR Global Trends Report 2024, United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), report, released June 12, 2025
https://www.unhcr.org/global-trends-report-2024
Full text: Record number of people displaced amid funding cuts, statement by Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) on the new global displacement figures, NRC, published June 12, 2025
https://www.nrc.no/news/2025/june/record-number-of-people-displaced-amid-funding-cuts