Mapping The World's Refugee Population

According to a report by the UNHCR, the number of people fleeing war, persecution and conflict exceeded 89 million by the end of 2021. This number is up eight percent from the year before and in 2022 to-date already surpassed 100 million.

More than two thirds of all refugees and displaced people originated from just five countries in late 2021, while the top 10 countries of origin accounted for more than 80 percent of the global total. As our chart shows, Syria has the highest number of displaced people outside of their home country, at 6.8 million. Venezuelans are the second largest population displaced across borders, with 4.6 million living outside of the country, nearly all of whom are located in the Americas region. The latest count of displaced Afghans totaled 2.7 million people, the third-highest in the world. Meanwhile, violence, food shortages, and deteriorating conditions have been pushing South Sudanese to emigrate, their numbers rising from 2.2 million refugees in 2020 to 2.4 million at the end of 2021, almost all of whom are living in Uganda (958,900), Sudan (803,600), Ethiopia (386, 800) and Kenya (135,300), according to the UNHCR.

In addition to a rise in the number of people being forced to flee their homes, these figures increased due to the registration of new births, new estimations of displacements, as well as updates following the backlog from 2020, as registration resumed in 2021 after being suspended due to Covid-19. Since the report reflects on the period January 2021 to December 2021, this chart does not yet reflect more recent events. In 2022, Ukraine will become one the countries with the most refugees, with 5.1 million already having left the country as of mid-June.