Most displaced persons (year)

On 20 June 2016 – World Refugee Day – the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) announced that 65.3 million people had been forced to flee their homes in the past year as a result of conflict, persecution, human rights violations or starvation – the first time since World War II that more than 60 million had been displaced. This represents one in every 113 people on Earth being compelled to leave their homes, and the equivalent of 24 people displaced every minute, or 34,000 every single day.

This figure represents a 10% increase on last year's figure of 59.5 million, and is larger than the population of the UK. If it was a nation, it would be the 21st largest in the world. More than half of the refugees under the UN's mandate originated from three countries – Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia – and more than half of all refugees were children.