Armed conflict

UN: Global Displacement Hits Record 123.2M

JUN 12 2025·Updated JUN 13 2025

Story

Above: People who fled the Zamzam camp for the internally displaced rest in a makeshift encampment near Tawila in Sudan's Darfur on April 13, 2025. Image credit: Contributor/AFP via Getty Images

The Facts

According to the Global Trends Report of the UNHCR, the U.N. refugee agency, released on Thursday, the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide reached a record 123.2 million at the end of 2024 — that's one in 67 people globally and a 6% increase from 2023. However, the figure dropped to 122.1 million by April due to returns.
UN News
ABC News
Al Jazeera
Sudan has overtaken Syria as the world's largest displacement crisis, with 14.3 million refugees and internally displaced people, surpassing Syria's 13.5 million. Afghanistan follows with 10.3 million displaced persons, and Ukraine has 8.8 million displaced persons.
France 24
RFI
Nearly 2 million Syrians have returned home since the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime in December 2024, with over 500,000 crossing back into the country and 1.2 million internally displaced people returning to their areas of origin.
Unrefugees
ABS
Internally displaced people within their own countries increased by 6.3 million to 73.5 million at the end of 2024 — 60% of all forcibly displaced people globally — while the number of refugees decreased by 613,600 to 42.7 million.
Dw.Com
Al Jazeera
A total of 9.8 million forcibly displaced people returned home in 2024, including 1.6 million refugees — the highest number in more than two decades — and 8.2 million internally displaced people, the second-highest annual return figure ever recorded.
ABS
EL PAÍS English
Despite the doubling of displaced populations over the past decade, UNHCR funding remains at roughly the same level as in 2015, with humanitarian aid cuts from traditional donors, including the U.S., creating what officials call an "untenable" situation.
Dw.Com
Unrefugees

Sources Split

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The Spin

Narrative A

The slight decrease in global displacement numbers represents genuine progress as millions of Syrians voluntarily return home after Assad's fall, demonstrating that political solutions can resolve refugee crises. The record resettlement numbers of 188,800 people show the international community's commitment to burden-sharing.

France 24

EL PAÍS English

Narrative B

The displacement crisis remains catastrophic, with 123.2 million people still uprooted, while funding cuts from wealthy nations abandon vulnerable populations. Many returns are forced deportations rather than voluntary, and conflicts in Sudan, Ukraine, and Myanmar continue generating massive new displacement.

Al Jazeera

Unrefugees