Forced Displacement Survey
Forced Displacement Survey
Currently, UNHCR has two primary data sources: registration systems and household surveys. Surveys can be dispersed, ad-hoc and sectoral and might not comply with international statistical standards. The FDS aims to address these challenges by building a standardized and compatible survey programme that produces multi-topic, high-quality, and timely data on people forced to flee.
Amira Khalifa Husein holds her ID that lists her six daughters (seated) and her two sons (not pictured). Her eldest daughter, Muna, who is aged 18, holds her ID which most refugees who are over 15 possess.
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The first Forced Displacement Survey was conducted in South Sudan in 2023 and published in July 2024. South Sudan has hosted refugees since its independence in 2011, despite facing multiple social challenges and internal conflicts. The survey aims to develop a better understanding of the lives of those forced to flee by presenting a broad overview of the legal and socioeconomic situation of refugee and host community populations in South Sudan, delivering insights to improve programming and policies.
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Explore the second Forced Displacement Survey (FDS) – Pakistan 2024
The FDS Pakistan 2024 was conducted in Pakistan in 2024 and published in November 2025. It collected district-level socioeconomic data on refugees and host communities. The data is nationally representative of the Afghan refugee population that held Proof of Registration (PoR) cards during that time. The FDS also provides valuable insights into the living conditions of host communities near refugee villages.
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Explore the third Forced Displacement Survey (FDS) – Zambia 2025
The FDS Zambia 2025 was conducted in 2025 and published in November 2025. It collected nationally representative, high-quality socio-economic data from over 4,000 households in Zambia—including refugees and asylum-seekers, former refugees, and host communities.
Explore FDS analytical outputs and papers
Demographic and legal status
- household composition;
- gender and age, disabilities;
- education;
- origin;
- movement and history of displacement;
- legal status;
- documentation.
Civil political
- access to information;
- access to justice;
- trust and political participation;
- safety and security;
- freedom of thought;
- freedom of movement;
- attitudes towards others;
- victimization;
- discrimination.
Economic
- access to labour market;
- livelihood occupation and skills;
- access to land and property;
- access to financial solutions;
- social protection;
- access to food and nutrition;
- access to clean energy;
- objective and subjective and mental well-being;
- remittances;
- child labour;
- experience of shocks.
Socio-cultural
- access to health;
- child nutrition and vaccination status;
- maternal health;
- access to housing;
- access to water sanitation and hygiene.
While data will be collected using the same data collection instrument in every country, each question is classified as core or non-core, and the non-core questions are included or excluded depending on the relevance of specific topics in each country.
Conducting interviews
Survey questions are designed to collect information about both households as a whole and about people who are part of it.
In each household, interviews are conducted with the head of the household or someone who is knowledgeable about the household as a whole. Interviews are also conducted with a randomly selected household member aged 15 years or above who provides information about individual life experiences. FDS interviews also collect data on a randomly selected child under five years of age and a randomly selected woman who gave birth in the last two years.
Open data access
The data produced will be publicly available (in compliance with UNHCR’s data protection policy) and can be used to inform the operations, programmes and research of donors, humanitarians and development institutions as well as forcibly displaced persons themselves.
While reducing the burden to provide information on affected populations, the FDS is comparable across countries and, over time, in alignment with international statistical standards. Following international standards makes FDS data comparable with other international and national surveys.
Target population and sampling
Refugees, asylum-seekers, refugee returnees and host community households constitute the primary populations of interest to the FDS in its initial phase. Expansion to other displaced populations is foreseen over time.
Nationally representative samples of these target populations are used to produce country-level statistics and evidence. Selected sample sizes and sample allocations allow the production of results for certain subgroups of the target population and to respond to the countries’ information needs and priorities.
Launching the survey
The FDS aims to cover most of the refugees and asylum-seekers hosted in low- and lower-middle-income countries. The first FDS pilots are planned in Cameroon, Pakistan and South Sudan.
Coordination and support
The FDS is entirely managed and implemented by UNHCR’s Global Data Service with technical and financial support from the World Bank-UNHCR Joint Data Center on Forced Displacement (JDC) and UNHCR’s Division of Resilience and Solutions.
The work of the FDS is guided by recommendations and best practices developed by established international survey programmes, and other interagency and inter-secretariat working groups and expert groups (i.e. DHS, LFS, LSMS, MICS, EGRISS, Inter-secretariat Working Group on Household Surveys).
Contact: [email protected]