Overview
- The U.N. refugee agency reported Thursday that the total number of people forcibly displaced fell in 2025 to about 117.8 million, the first year-on-year decline in a decade driven mainly by returns and some naturalizations.
- Around 14.7 million people returned home in 2025, a roughly 50% rise from 2024, but UNHCR warned many returned to damaged infrastructure, limited services and ongoing insecurity, raising protection concerns.
- Large return flows included roughly 2.9 million Afghans returning in 2025 and about 1.3 million Syrians after the December 2024 political change in Syria, which together sharply reduced those countries’ refugee totals.
- Displacement remains concentrated and long-term: about 68.7 million people are internally displaced, Sudan hosts the largest internal crisis with roughly 9.1 million people displaced, and 70% of refugees have been in exile five years or more.
- The agency flagged fresh displacement risks for 2026, noting roughly 3.2 million people displaced inside Iran and about 1 million in Lebanon due to recent Middle East fighting, and it urged expanded jobs, education and legal pathways as part of a plan to halve protracted, aid-dependent situations by 2035.