Global forced displacement falls to 117.3 million in mid-2025

The number of people forcibly displaced worldwide fell to 117.3 million by 30 June 2025, down 5.9 million from the end of 2024. It marks the first meaningful decline in a decade, according to UNHCR's Mid-Year Trends 2025 report, which covers the period from 1 January to 30 June 2025.

What is the scale of global displacement?

One in every 70 people on Earth now counts as forcibly displaced. The 117.3 million total breaks down as follows:

• 42.5 million refugees (down 1 per cent from end-2024, down 2 per cent from end-2023)
• 67.8 million internally displaced people (down 8 per cent from end-2024)
• 4.4 million stateless people or people of undetermined nationality (up 71,400 since end-2024)

Among refugees, 27.2 million fall under UNHCR's mandate, 3.3 million are in refugee-like situations, 6.1 million are in need of international protection, and 5.9 million are Palestine refugees under UNRWA's mandate. IDPs make up 58 per cent of all those forced to flee.

What drove the decline?

Three shifts pulled the global total down:

• Nearly 2 million refugees returned home, a fivefold increase over the same period in 2024.
• Almost 5 million IDPs returned to their place of origin, more than 2.5 times the figure for the first half of 2024.
• The change came from sharp increases in returns from Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and Syria.

Where are most returns happening?

Returns to and within seven countries accounted for 95 per cent of all returns of forcibly displaced people during the first half of 2025:

• Democratic Republic of the Congo: 1.9 million
• Syria: 1.5 million
• Sudan: 1.2 million
• Afghanistan: 874,900
• Ethiopia: 438,100
• Ukraine: 306,300
• Myanmar: 261,500

Over four in five refugee returnees were Afghans (874,800, 25-fold more than the same period in 2024), Syrians (526,200, 26-fold more) and Sudanese (291,200, 77 times more).

Which countries produce and host the most refugees?

Two-thirds of refugees and other people in need of international protection originate from just five countries: Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan, Ukraine and Venezuela. Sudan remains the single largest displacement situation, with 13.4 million refugees, asylum-seekers and IDPs combined.

The five largest refugee-hosting countries at mid-2025 were:

• Colombia: 2.8 million
• Germany: 2.7 million
• Türkiye: 2.7 million
• Iran: 2.5 million
• Uganda: 1.9 million

Seventy-one per cent of the world's refugees live in low- and middle-income countries.

Is the decline likely to last?

UNHCR warns that many returns have occurred under adverse conditions. Active conflict has eased in Syria, but insecurity persists and basic services remain absent in parts of the country. Sudanese returns have gone to small areas of relative stability while fighting and new displacement continue elsewhere. Afghan refugees returned after Iran and Pakistan enacted restrictive policies.

By mid-September, around one million Syrians had returned from abroad since the start of the year, on top of nearly one million IDPs who returned between January and June 2025.

How are resettlement and integration trending?

In the first half of 2025, 18 countries reported 28,700 arrivals through resettlement and sponsorship pathways. That figure is almost three times lower than the same period in 2024 and one-third below the five-year average.

The number of refugees who acquired citizenship or permanent residency in their host country rose 51 per cent, with 40,000 cases recorded in the first six months of 2025.

What risks does the 2025 funding gap pose?

UNHCR assesses that funding cuts in 2025 have placed roughly 11.6 million forcibly displaced people at risk of losing urgently needed assistance this year. The agency flags cuts already affecting food, healthcare and shelter support, school closures for refugee and host-community pupils, and limited operational capacity in fragile border areas.

The agency also warns that the lack of funding threatens data, registration and survey systems. Under half of all countries do not report statelessness data to UNHCR, including several with significant known stateless populations. The largest reported stateless group at mid-2025 remained Rohingya from Myanmar, at 1.8 million people.

Where can the full figures be reviewed?

UNHCR published the Mid-Year Trends 2025 report and its annexes on unhcr.org. All figures are provisional and subject to change. The final data will appear in the next Global Trends report, which UNHCR releases each June.