Visualizing the State of Refugees by Country

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30,510,629—That’s the number of refugees the world had in 2023 according to documented refugees by the UNHCR. These are the people who left their homeland to find a safe refuge in a foreign country.

In fact, according to the the UN’s refugee agency, there were a total of 110 million people forcibly displaced worldwide. Of those, a vast majority (almost 60%) were internally displaced, while the rest were the 30.5 million refugees charted above by Preyash Shah.

52% of Asylum Seekers Came from Three Countries in 2023

More than half of the refugees under UNHCR’s mandate originate from only three countries: Syria, Afghanistan, and Ukraine. Here is the breakdown by country of origin, including not fully recognized countries and refugees of unknown origin.

On the flip side, Iran and Turkey hosted the most refugees in the world in 2023, around 3.4 million people each. Germany comes in third with 2.5 million refugees, and Pakistan rounds out the top four with 2.1 million refugees.

Three-quarters (75%) of the world’s refugees and people needing international protection were hosted in low-and-middle-income countries. Among them, the least developed countries took in one-fifth (20%) of the total.

But while the statistics of refugees by country may paint a grim picture, there is reason for hope. In the first six months of 2023, just over 404,000 refugees returned to their countries of origin, more than double compared to the same period in 2022.

This article was published as a part of Visual Capitalist's Creator Program, which features data-driven visuals from some of our favorite Creators around the world.