The Countries Hosting the Most Refugees

According to estimates from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), some 36.5 million people were living as refugees under the UNHCR or UNRWA mandates as of mid-2023. As this chart shows, the countries hosting the most refugees are predominantly neighboring countries that have been experiencing conflict or war. For example, Iran documented a jump in the number of refugees from 798,343 in 2021 to 3,425,091 in 2022, largely due to an increase in people leaving Afghanistan. According to humanitarian agency Concern Worldwide, this is also in part due to a change in the country’s system of classifying refugees and an effort to legitimize previously-undocumented refugees. 

Similarly, in Turkey, some 3.3 million refugees in out of the country’s total 3.4 million are from neighboring Syria. Germany, on the other hand, known for its open doors approach during the 2015 crisis of migration policy, still holds a leading position on an international list after having welcomed high numbers of Ukrainian refugees in 2022. Ukrainians now make up the biggest group of refugees in Germany at 1,038,504, followed by Syrians (692,734), Afghans (239,583) and Iraqis (150,064). These figures are for refugees under the UN mandates and not asylum seekers. 

According to UNHCR data from mid-2023, the countries from which the most people have been forced to flee are Syria (6.5 million), Afghanistan (6.1 million), Ukraine (5.9 million), South Sudan (2.2 million). It’s important to note here that actual numbers are likely even higher as this data only reflects the number of people identified by the UN as forcibly displaced.