The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has recorded the first decline in the number of refugees worldwide in a decade, according to its annual Global Trends report, published today on the UNHCR website.
The report contains the latest official statistics on refugees fleeing war or persecution in their countries abroad, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons (IDPs) who have not left their country of citizenship, and stateless persons. The report also provides data on refugees’ return home.
Last year, about 117.8 million people were recorded in these statuses. This is 5 million less than the year before, when the UN recorded about 123.2 million people in the same categories.
It is noted that both the number of refugees and the number of internally displaced persons have decreased. The number of refugees worldwide fell by 3% to 35.6 million. According to the UN, seven out of ten refugees come from six countries: Afghanistan, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and Venezuela.
At the end of 2025, 68.7 million people remained internally displaced within their countries, a 7% decrease from the end of 2024. Almost half (46%) were in Sudan, Colombia, Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan.
The report notes that Colombia, Germany, Turkey, Uganda, Iran, Chad and Pakistan hosted the largest number of refugees and persons in need of international protection.
The UNHCR attributed the decline in the number of forcibly displaced people to refugees returning to their homelands. In 2025, 14.7 million people returned to their places of residence or countries of origin, which is 49% more than in 2024.
Most of them are citizens of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (3.6 million), Sudan (3.5 million), Syria (3.3 million), Afghanistan (2 million), Ukraine (718 thousand), and Myanmar (415 thousand). This is the second largest number of returnees since the UN began counting refugees.
Refugees are returning to countries and regions that remain unstable, engulfed in war or crisis. In some cases, UNHCR notes that the reason is the strengthening of migration policies in host countries.
At the same time, the report states that the number of refugees forced to stay outside their country for a long time remains unacceptably high.
