one-in-70-people-worldwide-facing-forced-displacement-unhcr

As many as 117.8 million people, or one in 70 worldwide, remain forcibly displaced, according to the latest report released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Thursday. For the first time in nearly a decade, forced displacement has declined — a shift driven by large-scale returns of refugees and internally displaced people from some of the world’s biggest displacement crises.

While 2025 witnessed a sizeable 4 per cent drop, the Lebanon refugee crisis in 2026 has contributed to a fast-growing displacement emergency. Since the US-Israel war on Iran began in late February 2026, Israeli attacks have forcibly displaced more than one million people, with another 3.2 million internally displaced within Iran.

According to the report, out of the total 117.8 million forcibly displaced people, 68 million are internally displaced within their own countries due to war and other crises. Roughly 28.5 million are refugees under the UNHCR mandate.

Over 9 million are asylum seekers awaiting decisions, while 7.2 million people are in need of international protection. Another 6 million are Palestinian refugees under UNRWA’s mandate.

The report notes that 72 per cent of the world’s total refugee population originates from just seven countries: Venezuela (6.4 million), Palestine (6 million), Ukraine (5.2 million), Syria (4.9 million), Afghanistan (3.7 million), Sudan (2.8 million) and South Sudan (2.4 million).

Colombia (2.8 million), Germany (2.7 million), Türkiye (2.4 million), Uganda (1.9 million), Iran (1.7 million), Chad (1.5 million) and Pakistan (1.3 million) are the largest host countries for refugees. In 2025, the number of refugees and internally displaced people returning home rose by 50 per cent compared with 2024, with just over 14.7 million people returning — the largest wave of returns recorded by the UNHCR.

However, the UNHCR has warned that conditions for return remain far from ideal, with many people going back to areas of violence and instability, raising serious concerns about the safety of those returning to their countries of origin.