Close sites icon close

Country sites

Search for the country site.

Country profile

Country website

Refugee Data Finder

What is the difference between population statistics for forcibly displaced and the population that UNHCR protects and/or assists?

Overview
At mid-2024, the total number of forcibly displaced people was estimated to be 122.6 million, while the total population that UNHCR protects and/or assists stood at 119.9 million people.
The total number of forcibly displaced people (122.6 million) encompasses refugees, asylum-seekers, other people in need of international protection and internally displaced people. It includes refugees and other displaced people not covered by UNHCR’s mandate and excludes other categories such as returnees and non-displaced stateless people.
The total population that UNHCR protects and/or assists (119.9 million) includes those who have been forcibly displaced (refugees, asylum-seekers, other people in need of international protection and internally displaced people); those who have returned home within the previous year; those who are stateless (most of whom are not forcibly displaced); and other groups of concern to whom UNHCR has extended its protection or provided assistance on a humanitarian basis.
These two categorizations are compared graphically below.
Forcibly
displaced people (estimated)
122,609,000
Population that UNHCR protects and/or assists
119,904,000
Palestine refugees under UNRWA's mandate
Not included in the population that UNHCR protects and/or assists.
Refugees under UNHCR's mandate
Includes both refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Used consistently in both categorizations.
Asylum-seekers
Used consistently in both categorizations.
Other people in need of international protection
Used consistently in both categorizations.
Internally Displaced People (IDPs)
The biggest difference between the two categorizations is with people who have been internally displaced. When presenting these statistics, UNHCR applies two different sources: IDMC's IDP statistics collate the total forcibly displaced while those IDPs protected/assisted by UNHCR are included in the total population that UNHCR protects and/or assists.
The two sources of IDP data vary significantly in certain countries. Note that IDMC does not publish mid-year stock figures and the figures presented correspond to the end of the previous year. Globally, IDMC reports 68.3 million IDPs at end-2023 while UNHCR reports 67.1 million conflict-affected IDPs at mid-2024.
The estimated total forced displacement at mid-2024 includes 72.1 million IDPs. This estimate is calculated using IDMC’s at end-2023 figure as a base and reflecting only changes in the statistics in the countries in which UNHCR reported internal displacement during the first six months of 2024. The total new displacement is therefore likely to underestimate internal displacement globally.
Stateless people
In total, UNHCR reports 4.4 million stateless people, 1.4 million are also forcibly displaced (e.g. the Rohingya in Bangladesh that have been forcibly displaced from Myanmar). These 1.4 million are only counted as forcibly displaced when calculating the total population that UNHCR protects and/or assists to avoid double counting.
Refugee returns
Only included in the population that UNHCR protects and/or assists.
IDP returns
Only included in the population that UNHCR protects and/or assists.
Others of concern to UNHCR
Only included in the population that UNHCR protects and/or assists.
Host community
Not included in either categorization.

Is the total number of people forcibly displaced always the sum of the population groups included?
Normally this is the case. Up until 2023, the total forced displacement is the sum of the refugees under UNHCR's mandate, asylum-seekers, other people in need of international protection, Palestine refugees under UNRWA's mandate and IDPs (reported by IDMC).
At the end of 2023, UNRWA estimates that 70 per cent of the 1.7 million IDPs in the Gaza Strip at end-2023 were Palestine refugees under its mandate. These internally displaced refugees under UNRWA’s mandate are only counted once in the global forcibly displaced total.
Are mid-year statistics different from end-year?
Yes. There are two reasons why the figures at mid-year are not directly comparable with the end-year figures:
  1. The population that UNHCR protects and/or assists includes returnees (refugees and IDPs). These are flow figures - i.e. the number of people returning in a specific year, whereas all the other figures are stock figures remaining at the end of each reporting period. As such, figures for these two durable solutions will be lower at mid-year, than at end-year.
  2. IDMC publishes new displacements at mid-year, but not the updated stock figure of the number of IDPs remaining displaced. Therefore, the forcibly displaced figure UNHCR publishes relies on IDMC's end-year figure from the previous year.
Where are these categories used?
The total number of people forcibly displaced is included in UNHCR's Global Trends and Mid-Year Trends publications, while the total population that UNHCR protects and/or assists supports the challenges and achievements presented in UNHCR's Global Report.

Data sources
Data is sourced from www.unhcr.org/refugee-statistics/. See the methodology pages for the definitions of who is included in UNHCR's statistics on forcibly displaced and stateless people and how the organisation collects this information.