New figures released today by UNHCR reveal the continuing upward trend for forcibly displaced people worldwide. At the end of 2018 there were 71 million refugees, asylum-seekers and internally displaced people - a new high and an increase of 2.3 million since the end of 2017. As cited in the latest report, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi commented: "What we are seeing in these figures is further confirmation of a longer-term rising trend in the number of people needing safety from war, conflict and persecution.”

As our infographic shows, the new record figure is in sharp contrast to the 43 million people recorded in 2009, and even as recently as the 60 million in 2014. Contributing to the latest record was an increased number of internally displaced people in Ethiopia due to Inter-communal violence, and the large numbers fleeing Venezuela.