List of countries by refugee population

In the middle of 2017, according to the UN Refugee Agency , 19.9 million people worldwide are considered international refugees . The number of people who had applied for asylum in another country was 3.1 million and a total of 39.1 million people within one country are on the run. This brought the number of people directly affected by flight and displacement to over 62 million, which is a new high. In addition, there were 4.9 million ex-refugees in the world who have returned to their home countries, 2.8 million stateless people and another 1.6 million people who do not fall under any of the categories, but also humanitarian from the UN Refugee Agency Reasons to be assisted.

As a refugee, according to the valid Geneva Convention , a person who is "well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race , religion , nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion is outside the country of his nationality it possesses." Another reason for fleeing can be natural disasters. Overall, most of the refugees left their countries due to armed conflict in 2016. As a rule, these people flee to a refugee camp or an urban center in order to seek asylum , protection and support there

Since the refugee crisis in Germany from 2015, Germany has been the country with the eighth highest number of international refugees and the country with the highest number of asylum seekers.

Countries by stock of international refugees

The following list sorts countries according to the number of foreign refugees in the country and the number of people who have applied for asylum (as of mid-2016).

rank	country	Number of refugees	Number of asylum seekers	Total number	comment
1	Turkey	2,869,421	245.955	3,115,376	Mostly displaced by the civil war in Syria since 2011
2	Pakistan	1,352,560	4,856	1,357,416	Mostly displaced by the Taliban uprising since 2001
3	Germany	669,482	587,346	1,268,845	See also: Refugee crisis in Germany from 2015
4th	Lebanon	1,012,969	13,745	1,026,714	Mostly displaced persons from the civil war in Syria since 2011 and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
5	Uganda	940.835	41,880	982.715	Mostly displaced persons from the civil war in South Sudan since 2013 and the Third Congo War
6th	Iran	979.435	91	979.526	Mostly displaced by the Taliban uprising since 2011 in Afghanistan
7th	United States	272,959	542,649	815.608
8th	Ethiopia	791.631	1,964	793,595	Mostly displaced persons from the Somali civil war and the civil war in South Sudan since 2013
9	Jordan	685.197	35,615	720.812	Mostly displaced persons from the civil war in Syria since 2011 and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
10	Kenya	451.099	43,764	494,863	Mostly displaced persons from the Somali civil war and the civil war in South Sudan since 2013
11	Democratic Republic of Congo	451,956	1,327	453.283	Mostly displaced from Rwanda , South Sudan , Burundi and the Central African Republic
12	Sudan	421.466	16.052	437,518	Mostly displaced by the civil war in South Sudan since 2013
13	Chad	391.251	1,909	393.160	Mostly displaced from Sudan and the Central African Republic
14th	Cameroon	375.415	3,251	378,666	Mostly displaced from Nigeria and the Central African Republic
15th	France	304,546	62,771	367.317	See also: Refugee crisis in Europe from 2015
16	People's Republic of China	317.255	668	317.923	Mostly displaced from Vietnam
17th	Sweden	230.164	83.103	313.267	See also: Refugee crisis in Europe from 2015
18th	South Africa	91.043	218.299	309,342	Mostly displaced from Zimbabwe and various African crisis regions
19th	Tanzania	281,498	8,539	290.037	Mostly displaced from Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
20th	Yemen	269,783	9.097	278,880	Mostly displaced by the Somali civil war
21st	Bangladesh	276.207	1	276.208	See also: Rohingya refugee crisis
22nd	Iraq	261,864	11,490	273.354
23	South Sudan	262,560	1,792	264,352
24	Egypt	213,530	49,877	263,407
25th	Italy	147,370	99,921	247.291	See also: Refugee crisis in Europe from 2015
26th	Russia	228.990	3,039	232.029	Mostly displaced from the war in Ukraine since 2014
27	India	197,851	9.219	207.070
28	Venezuela	172.053	904	172,957	Mostly displaced by the Colombian Civil War
29	Austria	93,250	76,409	169,659	See also: Refugee crisis in Europe from 2015
30th	Niger	166.093	65	166.158
31	United Kingdom	118.995	46,784	165.779	See also: Refugee crisis in Europe from 2015
32	Rwanda	156.065	464	156,529
33	Malaysia	92.263	56,311	148,574
34	Ecuador	102,848	24,542	127,390
35	Canada	97,332	23,935	121,267
36	Switzerland	82,681	30,800	113,481	See also: Refugee crisis in Europe from 2015
37	Netherlands	101,744	10,411	112.155	See also: Refugee crisis in Europe from 2015
38	Thailand	106,447	5.010	111,457
39	Algeria	94,232	5,712	99,944
40	Greece	46,427	39,986	86,413	See also: Refugee crisis in Europe from 2015
41	Mauritania	74,148	587	74,735
42	Australia	42,188	29,590	71,778
43	Norway	59,522	7,554	67,076	See also: Refugee crisis in Europe from 2015
44	Belgium	42,168	24,111	66,279	See also: Refugee crisis in Europe from 2015
45	Afghanistan	59,771	128	59,899
46	Republic of the Congo	46,457	6,675	53,132
47	Israel	30,546	21,288	51,834
48	Angola	15,555	30,143	45,698
49	Brazil	9,689	35,464	45.153
50	Denmark	33,507	7,024	40,531	See also: Refugee crisis in Europe from 2015
51	Libya	9,310	29,237	38,547
52	Serbia and Kosovo	36,522	130	36,652	See also: Refugee crisis in Europe from 2015
53	Spain	12,989	20,360	33,349	See also: Refugee crisis in Europe from 2015
54	Burundi	32,552	124	32,676
55	Zambia	29,350	3,319	32,669
56	Syria	19,809	12,494	32,303
57	Malawi	9,392	21,023	30,415
58	Djibouti	17,683	8,061	25,744
59	Nepal	25,249	72	25,321
60	Somalia	11,574	12,794	24,368
61	Finland	18,401	5,600	24.001
62	Panama	17,350	4,471	21,821
63	Japan	2,514	18.801	21,315
64	Liberia	18,990	17th	19.007
65	Armenia	17,886	82	17,968
66	Mali	17,512	301	17,813
67	Senegal	14,584	3,219	17,803
68	Mozambique	4,671	12,980	17,651
69	Poland	11,747	3,431	15,178
70	Indonesia	7,827	6,578	14,405
71	Togo	12,491	783	13,214
72	Central African Republic	12,115	304	12,419
73	Cyprus	8,484	3,088	11,572
74	Ireland	5,731	4,322	10,053
75	Ukraine	3,302	6,573	9,875
76	Papua New Guinea	9,536	23	9,559
77	Guinea-Bissau	9,263	32	9,295
78	Malta	7,948	902	8,850
79	Mexico	6,202	2,647	8,849
80	South Korea	1,807	6,861	8,668
81	Zimbabwe	7,426	952	8,378
82	Hungary	4,748	3,413	8,161
83	Gambia	7,940	0	7,940
84	Costa Rica	4,180	3,646	7,826
85	Argentina	3,293	3,991	7,284
86	Morocco	4,771	1,922	6,693
87	Peru	1,649	4,392	6,041
88	Bosnia and Herzegovina	5,271	53	5,324
89	Guinea	5,068	108	5,176
90	Chile	1,737	3.223	4,960
91	Czech Republic	3,644	775	4,419
92	Luxembourg	2,046	2.213	4,259
93	Tajikistan	2,729	431	3,160
94	Romania	2,905	74	2,979
95	Albania	138	2,752	2,890
96	Gabon	931	1,909	2,840
97	Georgia	2.125	312	2,437
98	Belize	0	2,431	2,431
99	Eritrea	2,342	8th	2,350
100	Botswana	2,093	80	2.173
101	Portugal	1,194	858	2,052
102	Belarus	1,650	231	1,881
103	Nigeria	1,367	467	1,834
104	Kuwait	939	823	1,762
105	New Zealand	1,421	303	1,744
106	Ivory Coast	1,399	284	1,683
107	United Arab Emirates	895	612	1,507
108	Azerbaijan	1,193	263	1,456
109	Lithuania	1,288	153	1,441
110	Sri Lanka	604	576	1,180
111	Swaziland	728	385	1,113
112	Montenegro	974	82	1,056
113	Benin	809	226	1,035
114	Slovakia	990	38	1,028
115	Croatia	304	557	861
116	Kazakhstan	653	137	790
117	Bolivia	786	3	789
118	Slovenia	462	319	781
119	Sierra Leone	683	7th	690
120	Oman	317	366	683
120	Uruguay	312	371	683
122	Tunisia	649	33	682
123	Nicaragua	331	334	665
124	North Macedonia	637	21st	658
125	Philippines	408	214	622
126	Iceland	252	343	595
127	Moldova	432	85	517
128	Latvia	349	148	497
129	Kyrgyzstan	339	120	459
130	Bahrain	271	111	372
131	Estonia	322	42	364
132	Cuba	316	27	343
133	Qatar	177	142	319
134	Guatemala	300	2	302
135	Cambodia	66	177	243
136	Liechtenstein	163	79	242
137	Nepal	204	33	237
138	Saudi Arabia	140	50	190
139	Hong Kong	110	0	110
140	Madagascar	28	27	55
141	Lesotho	45	3	48
142	Suriname	1	46	47
143	El Salvador	45	1	46
144	Bahamas	13	18th	31
145	Monaco	27	0	27
145	Turkmenistan	27	0	27
145	Uzbekistan	27	0	27
148	Honduras	16	10	26th
149	Jamaica	15th	9	24
150	Fiji	12	2	14th
151	Guyana	11	0	11
151	Mongolia	8th	3	11
153	Haiti	5	5	10
154	Macau	0	5	5
154	Mauritius	0	5	5
156	Netherlands Antilles	4th	0	4th
157	Barbados	0	2	2
157	Seychelles	2	0	2
157	Grenada	1	0	1
160	Brunei	0	0	0
160	Equatorial Guinea	0	0	0
160	Cape Verde	0	0	0
160	Laos	0	0	0
160	Myanmar	0	0	0
160	East Timor	0	0	0
160	Palestine	0	0	0
160	Singapore	0	0	0
160	Vietnam	0	0	0
160	Western Sahara	0	0	0
	WORLD	17.185.327	2,837,117	20,022,444

List of countries according to their international refugee population

The following table gives an overview of the number of citizens of one country who have fled to another country. Only countries from which at least 30,000 people have fled are given (as of mid-2016).

rank	country	Number of refugees	Number of asylum seekers	Total number	comment
1	Syria	5,500,586	184,344	5,684,930	Mostly displaced by the civil war in Syria since 2011
2	Afghanistan	2,488,701	369.089	2,857,790	Mostly displaced by the Taliban uprising since 2001 and the civil war in Afghanistan
3	South Sudan	1,436,719	5,805	1,442,524	Mostly displaced by the civil war in South Sudan since 2013
4th	Somalia	1,012,326	60.501	1,072,827	Mostly displaced by the Somali civil war
5	Sudan	650.407	50,478	700,885	Mostly displaced persons of the Darfur conflict and conflict in Dschanub Kurdufan
6th	Democratic Republic of Congo	537.473	82,729	620.202	Mostly displaced persons of the Third Congo War
7th	Iraq	316.063	278.375	594,438	Mostly displaced by the Iraqi Civil War
8th	Myanmar	490.289	56,027	546.316	Mostly displaced by the armed conflict in Myanmar
9	Eritrea	457.262	67,723	524,985	Mostly displaced under Isayas Afewerki's dictatorship
10	Central African Republic	490.892	10,615	501.507	Mostly displaced by the ethnic unrest in the Central African Republic
11	Burundi	408.085	24,401	432.486	Mostly displaced by the ethnic unrest in Burundi
...	Unknown	138,791	216,817	355,608
12	Vietnam	329.351	4,553	333.904	Mostly displaced from the Vietnam War
13	Colombia	311.070	12,583	323,653	Mostly displaced by the Colombian Civil War
14th	Rwanda	286.074	11,711	297.785	Largely displaced the genocide in Rwanda in 1994
15th	Nigeria	229,312	66,877	296.189	Mostly displaced by the Sharia conflict in Nigeria
16	People's Republic of China	207,772	72,165	279.937	Mostly displaced by the Xinjiang conflict and victims of political persecution
17th	Ukraine	239.079	34,658	273,737	Mostly displaced from the war in Ukraine since 2014
18th	Iran	94,100	87,543	181,643
19th	Pakistan	105,430	67,715	173.145	Mostly displaced from the conflict in Northwest Pakistan and the conflict in Balochistan
20th	Mali	156,428	9,716	166.144	Mostly displaced persons of the conflict in northern Mali (since 2012)
21st	Ethiopia	83,965	78,885	162,850
22nd	Sri Lanka	117,479	15,478	132,957	Mostly displaced by the civil war in Sri Lanka
23	Western Sahara	116,649	1,998	118,647	Mostly displaced persons of the Western Sahara conflict
24	Palestine	97,800	5,999	103,799	Mostly displaced by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
25th	Russia	62,771	35,378	98.149
26th	El Salvador	19,621	62.167	81,788	Mostly displaced from the drug war in Central America
27	Turkey	57,927	23,251	81,178	See also: Coup attempt in Turkey in 2016
28	Mexico	10,385	64,269	74,654	Most displaced from the drug war in Mexico
29	Ivory Coast	46,813	18,636	65,449	Mostly displaced by the civil war in Ivory Coast
30th	Zimbabwe	18,156	43.205	61,361	Mostly displaced under the dictatorship of Robert Mugabe
...	Stateless	48,697	10,757	59,454
31	Guatemala	12,554	46.227	58,781	Mostly displaced from the drug war in Central America
32	Serbia and Kosovo	36,933	21,702	58,635
33	Venezuela	7,537	45.093	52,360	Mostly displaced from the political and social crisis in Venezuela
34	Haiti	29,684	22,459	52.143
35	Honduras	10,508	35.203	45,711	Mostly displaced from the drug war in Central America
36	Mauritania	36,265	7,393	43,658
37	Guinea	17,548	24,434	41,982
38	Bangladesh	13,851	25,939	39,790
39	Senegal	23,061	16,320	39,381	Mostly displaced by the Casamance conflict
40	India	7,291	27,952	35,243
41	Albania	11,065	23,765	34,830
42	Yemen	18,428	15,892	34,320	Mostly displaced by the war in Yemen since 2015
43	Egypt	19,796	13,047	32,843
44	Gambia	11,600	18,917	30,517
	WORLD	17.185.327	2,837,117	20,022,444

Countries by internally displaced persons

The following table sorts the countries with the highest number of internally displaced persons in 2017.

rank	country	Number of IDP	comment
1	Colombia	7,677,609	See also: Colombian Civil War
2	Syria	6.150.005	See also: Syrian civil war since 2011
3	Democratic Republic of Congo	4,351,376	See also: Third Congo War
4th	Iraq	2,615,988	See also: Iraqi Civil War
5	Somalia	2,116,705	See also: Somali Civil War
6th	Yemen	2,014,062	See also: Military intervention in Yemen since 2015
7th	Sudan	1,997,022	See also: Darfur conflict and conflict in Dschanub Kurdufan
8th	South Sudan	1,903,953	See also: Civil war in South Sudan since 2013
9	Afghanistan	1,837,079	See also: Civil War in Afghanistan
10	Ukraine	1,800,000	See also: War in Ukraine since 2014
11	Nigeria	1,704,080	See also: Sharia conflict in Nigeria
12	Myanmar	353.108	See also: Armed Conflict in Myanmar
	WORLD	39.118.516

Development of the number of refugees worldwide

The following table gives an overview of the development of the worldwide number of refugees since 1951 and the number of asylum seekers and internally displaced persons since 2000.

year	Number of refugees	Number of asylum seekers	Number internally distributed	Total number of people affected
1951	2,116,011	...	...	2,116,011
1960	1,656,664	...	...	1,656,664
1970	2,464,730	...	...	2,464,730
1980	8,454,937	...	...	8,454,937
1990	17,395,979	...	...	17,395,979
2000	12,129,572	947.926	5,998,501	19,075,999
2010	10,549,681	837.445	14,697,804	26,084,930
2016	17.187.488	2,826,508	36,627,127	56,641,123
2017	19,941,347	3,090,898	39.118.516	62.215.761

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} UNHCR Population Statistics - Data - Overview. Retrieved April 24, 2018 . 
2. ↑ United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: UNHCR Statistical Yearbook 2016, 16th edition . In: UNHCR . ( unhcr.org [accessed April 25, 2018]).
3. ^ ^{A b c} The World Factbook - Central Intelligence Agency. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 18, 2015 ; accessed on April 28, 2018 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

Web links

• Graphics and text: Top 10 host countries, countries of origin, refugee movements worldwide, end of 2017 , from: Facts and Figures: Globalization , Federal Agency for Civic Education / bpb
• Graphics and text: Top 30 refugee movements admitted to Europe, end of 2017 , from: Facts and Figures: Europe , bpb