For the first time in a decade, the UN has reported a decline in the number of refugees worldwide
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported a decline in the global number of refugees, marking the first such decrease in the past decade. The agency noted that the shift in trends may be linked to the dynamics of conflicts, the return of some people to their countries of origin, and other migration processes.
The report contains the latest official statistics on refugees who have fled wars or persecution in their home countries to seek refuge abroad, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons (IDPs who have not left the borders of their country of citizenship), and stateless persons. The report also provides data on the return of refugees to their home countries.
Last year, approximately 117.8 million people were recorded in these categories. This is 5 million fewer than the previous year, when the UN recorded approximately 123.2 million people in these same categories.
It is noted that both the number of refugees and internally displaced persons has decreased.
The number of refugees worldwide decreased by 3% to 35.6 million people. According to the UN, seven out of ten refugees come from six countries: Afghanistan, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, and Venezuela.
As of the end of 2025, 68.7 million people remained internally displaced within their own countries, which is 7% fewer than at the end of 2024. Nearly half (46%) are in Sudan, Colombia, Syria, Yemen, and Afghanistan.
The report notes that Colombia, Germany, Turkey, Uganda, Iran, Chad, and Pakistan hosted the largest numbers of refugees and people in need of international protection.
UNHCR attributed the decline in the number of forcibly displaced people to the return of refugees to their home countries. In 2025, 14.7 million people returned to their places of residence or countries of origin, which is 49% more than in 2024.
Most of them were citizens of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (3.6 million people), Sudan (3.5 million), Syria (3.3 million), Afghanistan (2 million), Ukraine (718,000), and Myanmar (415,000). Since the UN began tracking refugee numbers, this is the second-highest number of returnees on record.
At the same time, refugees are returning to countries and regions that remain unstable, engulfed in war or crisis. In some cases, UNHCR notes that the reason is the tightening of migration policies in host countries.
At the same time, the report states that the number of refugees forced to remain outside their home countries for extended periods remains unacceptably high, according to the UNHCR website.
It should be noted that Lidiia Tkachenko, a leading research fellow at the M.V. Ptukha Institute of Demography and Social Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and a candidate of economic sciences, believes that labor migrants are unlikely to come to Ukraine in the near future.
Large migration flows and declining birth rates during a full-scale war are exacerbating the demographic crisis in Ukraine year after year.
At the same time, Ukraine has accepted fewer than 2,400 refugees during the war, according to the Migration Service.
