19 June 2017: unhcr, asylum statistics

UNHCR reports new record level of 65,6 million displaced

Of these 65.6 million forcibly displaced,

• 22.5 million people were refugees
• 40.3 million were internally displaced
• 2.8 million were asylum seekers

84% of the world’s refugees under UNHCR’s mandate were hosted by developing nations.

51% of the refugee population were children.

During the year, 10.3 million people were newly displaced.

Lebanon continued to host the largest number of refugees relative to its national population, where 1 in 6 people was a refugee. Jordan (1 in 11) and Turkey (1 in 28) ranked second and third, respectively. [...]

More than half (55 per cent) of all refugees worldwide came from just three countries:

• Syrian Arab Republic (5.5 million)
• Afghanistan (2.5 million)
• South Sudan (1.4 million)

[...] The number of new asylum claims remained high at 2.0 million. With 722,400 such claims, Germany was the world’s largest recipient of new individual applications, followed by the United States of America (262,000), Italy (123,000), and Turkey (78,600). [...]

The main countries of asylum for refugees were:

• Turkey: 2.9 million
• Pakistan: 1.4 million
• Lebanon: 1.0 million
• Islamic Republic of Iran: 979,400
• Uganda: 940,800
• Ethiopia: 791,600

The report can be accessed at the following link:

UNHCR: Global Trends. Forced Displacement in 2016, 19 June 2017
http://www.unhcr.org/dach/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2017/06/2016_Global_Trends_WEB-embargoed.pdf

For numbers on asylum decisions in the European Union in 2016, see the following two EUROSTAT publications:

EUROSTAT: Asylum in the EU Member States; 1.2 million first time asylum seekers registered in 2016; Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis continued to be the top citizenships [46/2017], 16 March 2017

In 2016, 1 204 300 first time asylum seekers applied for international protection in the Member States of the European Union (EU), a number slightly down compared with 2015 (when 1 257 000 first time applicants were registered) but almost double that of 2014 (562 700).
Syrians (334 800 first time applicants), Afghans (183 000) and Iraqis (127 000) remained the main citizenship of people seeking international protection in the EU Member States in 2016, accounting for slightly more than half of all first time applicants.