Global forced displacement decreased in 2025 for the first time in 10 years, according to a UNHCR report. This reduction was driven by a 50 percent increase in returns of refugees and internally displaced people compared to 2024.
The number of displaced individuals decreased by approximately 4 percent in 2025, with more than 14.7 million people returning home. The UNHCR recorded 2025 as the period with the highest number of documented returns. At least 117.8 million people worldwide remain forcibly displaced, representing one in 70 individuals globally.
Of the total affected population, 68.6 million are internally displaced within their own countries due to conflict or other crises. Roughly 28.5 million refugees fall under the UNHCR mandate, while 9 million individuals are asylum seekers. An additional 7.2 million people require international protection, and 6 million are Palestinian refugees under the UNRWA mandate. The UNHCR reports that many refugees returning to their home countries encounter ongoing violence and instability.
Six countries accounted for 92 percent of the total returns: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Myanmar. The DRC and Sudan each recorded 3.6 million returns. Syria recorded 3.3 million returns, Afghanistan recorded 2 million, Ukraine recorded 718,300, and Myanmar recorded 415,200.
In 2023, conflict in Sudan between the Sudanese military and the Rapid Support Forces displaced 1.5 million people. The report stated that in 2023, Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip displaced nearly all of the territory's 2.3 million residents. A war in Ukraine beginning in 2022 resulted in 5.7 million people fleeing the country within a year. Seventy-two percent of global refugees originate from seven countries, including Venezuela, Palestine, Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan, and South Sudan.
The U.N. established the Refugee Convention in 1951 to protect refugee rights in Europe after World War II. At that time, 2.1 million refugees were recorded. The convention expanded in 1967 to cover worldwide displacement. By 1980, U.N. records indicated the refugee count had surpassed 10 million. Records showed refugee numbers reached 20 million by 1990, driven by conflicts in Afghanistan and Ethiopia during the 1980s. Records indicated the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003, alongside civil wars in South Sudan and Syria, contributed to refugee numbers exceeding 30 million by the end of 2021.
No independent assessment was available for this report.