UN says number of forcibly displaced people drops to 118M

The number of forcibly displaced people fell for the first time in a decade in 2025, as more people returned home despite ongoing insecurity, the UN's refugee agency said on Thursday.

By the end of the year, 117.8 million people remained displaced worldwide, 5.4 million fewer than in 2024, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a report.

The decline was driven by a sharp rise in returns, with 14.7 million displaced people going back to their places of origin, including 4.4 million refugees, the second-highest number recorded in 60 years.

Of those displaced at the end of 2025, 41.6 million were refugees. Nearly 5.4 million people became refugees during the year, with 60% fleeing just eight countries, including almost 1 million from Sudan and nearly 800,000 from Ukraine.

The report also highlighted new displacement crises in 2026. The war launched by the US and Israel in February displaced 3.2 million people in Iran, while Israeli attacks in Lebanon since March forced more than 1 million people from their homes.

The UN agency also warned about shrinking refugee resettlement opportunities. Although 2.9 million refugees needed resettlement, available places fell from a four-decade high of 188,800 in 2024 to just 81,800 in 2025, largely due to a sharp drop in US admissions.