Displacement

The total number of children displaced by conflict and violence rose to 48.8 million by the end of 2024, with large populations of children driven from home in places around the world: Sudan, Myanmar, the Gaza Strip, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Afghanistan. This number includes some 19.1 million refugee children and asylum-seekers (15.0 million refugees under UNHCR mandate and other children in need of international protection[1], 1.7 million Palestine children registered as refugees with UNRWA[2]) and around 2.7 million asylum-seeking children) and an estimated 29.4 million children displaced within their own countries by conflict and violence.

Data show that an additional 4.4 million children were living in situations of internal displacement at the end of 2024 because of disasters.

Between 2010 and 2024, the global number of displaced children nearly tripled from around 17.0 million to 48.8 million. According to UNHCR, more than 2.3 million children were born as refugees from 2018 to 2024 alone, the equivalent of 337,800 children each year.

Footnotes

[1] The category “Other people in need of international protection” (OIP) refers to “people who are outside their country or territory of origin, typically because they have been forcibly displaced across international borders, who have not been reported under other categories (asylum-seekers, refugees, people in refugee-like situations) but who likely need international protection, including protection against forced return, as well as access to basic services on a temporary or longer-term basis” (Source: UNHCR 2025, Refugee Data Finder.

[2] In total, 6 million Palestine refugees are registered in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and the West Bank with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). These refugees are outside of the mandate of UNHCR.

Read more

Cross-border displacement

Children are dramatically overrepresented among the world’s refugees. They make up less than one third of the global population – but comprised 40 per cent of the refugee population in 2024. In other words, children account for two in five people who have been forced to cross borders because of conflict and violence. Their large share of the displaced population is further evidence of the unjust burden that children bear in a world of decisions and disasters far beyond their control.

The refugee population is much younger than the general population

Age distribution of refugees and total population, 2024 (percentage)

Where the world’s refugees come from

While planned migratory journeys can offer new opportunities to the children and families that undertake them, displacement often exacerbates children’s vulnerability and further undermines their well-being due its often sudden nature. Conflict and violence are sadly the hallmarks of too many childhoods and a common denominator in nearly all countries of origin for large numbers of refugee children. In 2024, two in three refugee children and OIP came from just five countries: Afghanistan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of), Ukraine and South Sudan; three of them – Afghanistan, the Syrian Arab Republic and Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) – accounted for nearly half of all refugee children in the world.

Three countries account for nearly half of all refugee children in the world

Number of refugees by age and country of origin, 2024

Where the world’s child refugees live

Looking at the regional distribution of child refugees, 70 per cent (10.5 million) of them live in Asia and Africa. Uganda remains the main country of asylum for refugee children in Africa, hosting nearly a million of them, while on the Asian continent, children comprise more than half (52 per cent) of Iran (Islamic Republic of)’s 1.8 million refugees, who account for one in 10 refugees under UNHCR mandate in 2024. This makes Iran (Islamic Republic of) the single largest host country of refugee children in the world in absolute terms, most of whom are from Afghanistan. Colombia hosts the largest population of refugee children in Latin America and the Caribbean, with nearly 1 million refugees, primarily OIP from Venezuela. Europe hosts 17 per cent (2.5 million) of the world’s child refugees, primarily in Germany. Most refugees stay close to their country of origin: 67 per cent of all refugees around the world are hosted in a country that directly borders their origin country.

Two in three refugee children are in Africa and Asia

Largest populations of refugee children by region of asylum, 2024

Over 40 per cent of the world’s refugee children live in six countries

Largest populations of refugee children by country of asylum, 2024

Lebanon hosts the largest number of refugees relative to its total population (131 refugees per 1,000 people) by an overwhelming margin, followed by Chad (63 refugees per 1,000 people) and Jordan (56 refugees per 1,000 people). Today, nearly one in eight people in Lebanon is a refugee. By comparison, the same ratio for the United Kingdom is 1 in 134 and in the United States, it is 1 in 793. When the nearly half a million Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon are added to this total, Lebanon’s contributions to global refugee responsibility-sharing are even more evident.

Several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean host relatively high proportions of OIP, primarily due to the large number of Venezuelans who have fled the country over several years. This can be seen in Colombia (53 refugees per 1,000 people) and the small island countries of Aruba (106 refugees per 1,000 people) and Curaçao (63 refugees per 1,000 people).

Lebanon and Chad host the largest number of refugees relative to their overall population

Refugees and OIP per 1,000 population in countries hosting over 10,000 refugees or OIP, 2024

When considering refugee-host countries by income level (number of refugees per 1 USD GNI per capita), Chad, Uganda and Pakistan host the highest refugee populations relative to their resources. By the same measure, the first 19 countries hosting the largest number of refugees relative to their per-capita income level are all in Africa and Asia.

Internal displacement

Even when children do not cross borders in search of safety, they often face serious risks when displaced within their own countries. Notably, the first step of nearly all people who eventually become refugees is internal displacement.

At the end of 2024, there were an estimated 33.8 million internally displaced children around the globe. African countries were home to more than half (57 per cent, 19.1 million) of them, largely due to the high numbers in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Asia accounted for a third (11.3 million) of all internally displaced children. Latin America and the Caribbean hosted 8 per cent (2.6 million) of the global total, while Europe accounted for 2 per cent (720,700). In contrast, Northern America and Oceania together were home to approximately 50,000 internally displaced children, representing less than 1 per cent of the global figure.

Africa and Asia host 90 per cent of all internally displaced children

Share of IDP children by region, 2024

Sudan recorded the highest number globally, with approximately 5.4 million internally displaced children – accounting for 16 per cent of the global total, or roughly one in every six displaced child. The Democratic Republic of the Congo followed with 3.6 million, representing about 10 per cent of the global figure. Prolonged conflicts in Afghanistan and Syria have also contributed significantly, with each country hosting around 8 per cent of the world’s internally displaced children.

75 per cent of all internally displaced children live in just 10 countries

Largest internally displaced child populations by country, 2024

Internal displacement by cause

By the end of 2024, some 73.5 million people were living in situations of internal displacement due to conflict and violence – many of them having done so for years. Assuming that the proportion of internally displaced children is equal to the proportion of children in the national population, an estimated 29.4 million children were on the move within their own countries due to conflict and violence at the end of 2024, representing 41 per cent of the world’s internally displaced population. Most children internally displaced by conflict and violence live in sub-Saharan Africa; the Middle East and Afghanistan are also hot spots for conflict- and violence-related internal displacement.

Compared to the number of child refugees and asylum-seekers in 2024 (19.1 million), this figure – 29.4 million – suggests that conflict and violence displace even more children within their own borders than beyond them. As is often the case with data related to migration and displacement, however, most information about internal displacement is not broken down by age, making it difficult to provide a reliable estimate of the number of children among the total IDP population. If children are overrepresented in internal displacement the same way they are among refugees, then their total would be even higher.

Conflict and violence resulted in 29.4 million children living in displacement within their own countries at the end of 2024

Number of internally displaced children by cause of displacement, 2024

Disasters – mostly storms and floods – were the leading cause of most new internal displacements of children in 2024. Around the globe, an estimated 23.3 million new displacements of children occurred in 2024: 8.9 million due to conflict and violence and over 14.5 million tied to disasters. The majority of new displacements driven by conflict and violence occurred in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, while the bulk of new displacements caused by disasters took place in sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern and South-Eastern Asia.

In 2024 alone, an estimated 23.3 million new displacements of children occurred globally – disasters drove three in five of them

New internal displacements of children by cause of displacement, 2024

Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for more than two in five (42 per cent) new internal displacements of children in 2024

Number of new internal displacements of children by cause and region, 2024

Hide