Overview
a. How is the indicator 10.7.4 of the Sustainable Development Goals calculated?
SDG Indicator 10.7.4 identifies the proportion of a country’s population who become refugees. The indicator is computed as follows:
[Number of refugees by country of origin at end-year / (End-year population in country of origin + number of refugees by country of origin at end-year)] * 100,000
The indicator includes refugees under UNHCR’s mandate, people in a refugee-like situation and other people in need of international protection.
The indicator excludes Palestine refugees under UNRWA’s mandate.
More
detailed metadata on the indicator is a available on the United Nations Statistics Division website.
At
mid-2024,
Syria remains the country with the greatest proportion of its national population who have become refugees.
Over one in five Syrians (20,200 refugees per 100,000 inhabitants) have become refugees.
This proportion has remained largely unchanged for ten years.
Globally there are 460 refugees per 100,000 people.
See
Mid-Year Trends for the latest SDG indicator 10.7.4 summary in the chapter on refugees.
b. Who is included in statistics on internal displacement?
People forced to flee due to armed conflicts, generalized violence, or human rights violations and who remain within their own countries are known as internally displaced people (IDPs).
The two most commonly reported statistical measures of internal displacement are the number of people remaining displaced at a particular point in time, such as the end of the year, and the number of new internal displacements during a period of time, such as a calendar year. As new internal displacements refer to movements, and is a comprehensive cumulative figure of displacement, depending on certain situations the same people can be displaced several times over a given period and would therefore be reported multiple times in the cumulative figures.
As of the end of 2023, IDMC reported
75.9 million IDPs,
of which 68.3 million remained displaced due to conflict and violence,
and 7.7 million due to disasters.
At mid-2024, UNHCR estimates there were
72.1 million conflict-affected IDPs.
This figure excludes people displaced within their countries solely due to disasters and the effects of climate change.
This estimate is calculated using IDMC’s end-2023 figure (68.3 million people) as a base.
It only reflects changes in the statistics in the 36 countries in which
UNHCR reported internal displacement during the first six months of 2024
(67.1 million in total,
+3.8 million compared to
end-2023).
This mid-year estimate is therefore likely to be under representative of the global total.
c. How is refugee status granted?
Fair and efficient asylum systems are essential to assess the asylum claims of those seeking international protection against the legal criteria set out in international, regional and national law. Effective procedures and prompt decisions on refugee claims allow those recognized as refugees to find protection where they are and find better pathways towards socio-economic inclusion. Prompt decision-making also facilitates the safe, dignified and rights-based return of those found not to be in need of international protection and reduces the incentive to legalize stay through asylum procedures when international protection needs are not present.
The process of making such assessments, known as Refugee Status Determination (RSD), is the responsibility of, and conducted primarily by, governments. In the absence of a fair and efficient national asylum system UNHCR may conduct RSD under its mandate to facilitate protection and solutions. However, its priority is supporting States to effectively assume their RSD responsibilities.
Refugee status can be determined through either individual or group procedures, and the result of such recognition is the same.
Individual RSD procedures start with the applicant registering their asylum claim for the first time in a country – a new asylum application. Once their claim is processed, applicants will either:
- Receive a substantive decision on their case. Such decisions include the grant of Convention status, complementary and other forms of protection, and rejected cases.
- Or their case will be closed for administrative reasons, which means a decision is not made on the case’s merits. Examples of a case being closed for administrative reasons includes the death of the applicant, withdrawal of the application, abandonment of the claim, or the determination that another country is responsible for the claim.
- If applications are rejected, applicants should have the right to appeal this decision by applying for a review by administrative appellate bodies or the courts (or both). Statistical information on the filing and outcomes of asylum appeals and court proceedings, especially at secondary or higher appeals, is under-reported in UNHCR’s statistics, as this type of data is often either not collected by States or not published.
Recognition through group procedures, often referred to as prima facie procedures,
most commonly takes place when there are readily apparent, objective circumstances in a country of origin which suggest that most individuals fleeing from that country are likely to be refugees. In most cases, those being granted refugee status on a group basis will be directly registered as refugees, as opposed to those recognized on an individual basis who will first be registered as an asylum-seeker. This is why individuals undergoing group determination will normally not be counted in the “asylum application” total. Individual procedures primarily take place in the Americas and Europe, while most group refugee procedures are conducted in Africa.
In addition to group and individual refugee protection, in some circumstances individuals that would otherwise apply for refugee status instead apply for, and are granted,
temporary protection. Temporary protection is considered to be complementary to the international refugee protection regime. It can be an effective tool to use in the context of large-scale displacement to provide immediate protection from refoulement, access to legal status and rights in host countries.
d. How are asylum indicators calculated?
UNHCR uses two rates to compute the proportion of refugee claims accepted. The Refugee Recognition Rate is the proportion of asylum-seekers accorded refugee status out of the total number of substantive decisions (Convention status, complementary protection and rejected cases). The Total Protection Rate is the proportion of asylum-seekers accorded refugee status or a complementary form of protection relative to the total number of substantive decisions. Non-substantive decisions are, to the extent possible, excluded from both calculations. For the purposes of global comparability, UNHCR uses only these two rates and does not report rates calculated by national authorities.
In the first half of 2024,
711,100 substantive decisions were made on individual asylum applications.
The global Total Protection Rate, which measures the percentage of substantive decisions that resulted in
some form of international protection,
decreased to
55 per cent in the
first half of 2024 from
59 per cent in the previous year.
e. What are durable solutions for refugees and IDPs?
A solution is achieved when the situation of forcibly displaced and stateless people is satisfactorily and permanently resolved through ensuring national protection for their civil, cultural, economic, political, and social rights.
Durable solutions are part of UNHCR’s mandate and are a strategic priority for UNHCR and the humanitarian community, as set out in the Global Compact on Refugees and the UN Secretary-General’s Action Agenda on Internal Displacement.
Durable solutions continue to remain a reality for very few people.
See also the additional
explanation of solutions on the Refugee Data finder methodology pages.
For refugees, durable solutions can be achieved through voluntary repatriation, local integration and resettlement to a third country. They could also be progressively attained through complementary pathways opportunities in third countries and family reunification:
- For most refugees, returning to their home country in safety and dignity based on a free and informed choice would be a preferred solution to bring their temporary status as refugees to an end.
- Resettlement to third countries is a crucial protection tool and a solution for refugees who face urgent or specific risks, and for populations in protracted situations. Offering resettlement opportunities, allows States to share responsibility with those countries of asylum who welcome large numbers of refugees.
- Local integration helps ensure that refugees can build new lives in host countries. However, statistics on local integration are rarely available. Naturalization – the process by which a person can obtain citizenship in their host country – is used by UNHCR as an imperfect proxy to more comprehensive statistics on local integration. Even such statistics are only available for a limited number of countries. Other metrics also have limitations, such as the number of refugees that have been granted long-term or permanent residency, although such statistics are more widely published.
-
Complementary pathways can lead to solutions, ease pressure on host countries and enhance refugees’ self-reliance, including through education pathways or labour mobility.
See also: Safe Pathways for Refugees III, The Global Compact on Refugees.
- Family reunification is a procedure ensuring access to the right to family unity – that is regulated by national, regional and international law - allowing refugees and asylum seekers to enjoy their right to family life, and start new lives together.
For IDPs, assessing and reporting on whether they have overcome their displacement-related vulnerabilities requires a multi-faceted,
comprehensive approach, as set out in the
International Recommendations on Internally Displaced Persons Statistics (IRIS).
This can take place in IDPs’ place of habitual residence (i.e. after return), in their current place of displacement, or after settling elsewhere in their country. In almost all countries in which people have been internally displaced, the availability of data to inform this approach remains extremely limited and efforts to generate and improve such data to better measure durable solutions for IDPs continue. In the meantime, UNHCR continues to report on IDPs that have returned to their place of origin.
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