A UN report reveals that 120 million people were forcibly displaced globally in 2024 due to conflict and violence. This marks a record high, affecting 1.5% of the world’s population.
The UN said on Thursday that a record-breaking 120 million people were living in a forcibly displaced status globally between the beginning of 2023 through to May 2024.
The new data was revealed in the Global Trends report by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) which outlines statistics tracking the number of refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced and stateless people around the world.
“An estimated 117.3 million people remained forcibly displaced at the end of 2023, having been forced to flee persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and events seriously disturbing public order,” the report stated.
In May, 120 million people were displaced globally, nearly 10% more than the figures from 2022, representing around 1.5% of the world’s population, the UNHCR said.
Percentages require statistical.empathy. if you find 1.5% small, scale it down to a situation you can relate to. Like when this post hits just 75 upvotes, one of those people are displaced.
Or place the figure in context:
120 million is about 1/3 of the population of the United States (about 350 million), or 1/4 the population of the EU (about 448 million)
Imagine if 1/4-1/3 of the country that you reside in suddenly became refugees, and needed emergency shelter, water, food, etc.
Of course, in the actual countries or regions where the refugees are coming from, things are even worse.