The UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency) have released their Global Trends Report for 2016 and it makes for stark and worrying reading. The report shows that levels of displacement globally are still at a record high (although the growth in numbers has slowed), fuelled by developing crises such as that in South Sudan. The key findings and useful numbers include:

  • At the end of 2016, 65.6 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced from their homes (an increase of 300,000 on the previous year)
  • 10.3 million people were newly displaced by conflict or persecution in 2016 (the equivalent of 20 people being forced to flee their homes every minute)
  • 22.5 million people were refugees at the end of 2016
  • 51% of refugees are children
  • 84% of the world’s refugees are hosted by developing regions
  • Turkey hosted the largest number of refugees with 2.9 million people (followed by Pakistan, Lebanon, Iran, Uganda & Ethiopia)
  • 55% of all refugees come from just three countries (Syria, Afghanistan and South Sudan)
  • 2 million new asylum claims were made in 2016 – Germany was the largest recipient with 722,400 applications (the UK received 30,603 claims)

You can read more and download the full report here