Refugees - major source countries worldwide as of 2022

As of 2022, Syria had the highest number of refugees who fled the country. That year, about 6.6 million refugees had left the country, mainly due to the civil war that started in 2011. Second on the list are Ukraine after 5.7 million people left the country since Russia's invasion in February 2022. The third highest number of refugees in the world came from Afghanistan after years of civil wars, instability, and Taliban regaining power in 2021.

What are refugees?

Refugees are people who have been forced to leave their country because of dangerous circumstances, such as war, violence, famine, or persecution. These circumstances arise from race, religious, ethnic, and/or political persecution, and refugees are unable to return to their home countries due to these conflicts. As of 2022, Turkey hosted the largest number of Syrian refugees.

Refugees worldwide

In 2022, most of the refugees that arrived in the United States came from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Furthermore, the number of refugees, internally displaced people, and asylum seekers worldwide have significantly increased since 2012, much due to the civil wars in Syria and Libya that started in 2011, but also due to increasing instability in the Sahel and the Russia-Ukraine war. An internally displaced person is someone who is forced to leave their home but still stays in their country. They are not legally considered a refugee. Asylum seekers are people who leave their home country and enter another country to apply for asylum, which is internationally recognized protection.