Almost 1 in 100 people worldwide are forcibly displaced from their homes

More than 60 million people — or nearly one out of every 100 people worldwide — had been forcibly displaced from their homes as of the end of 2015. This is both the highest number and proportion of displaced people measured since the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) began counting in 1951.

Though displacement has spiked around the world since 2010, particularly hard hit is the Middle East, where the rate of forcible displacement grows from the 0.8 percent global average to a shocking 5.6 percent, meaning more than one in every 20 people in the region has been forced to leave their homes.

Also on the rise is intra-country displacement, where people flee their homes but not their nations, only traveling as far as they must to escape immediate danger. The three countries with largest number of such internal refugees are Colombia, Syria, and Iraq.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up