Highlights:

This report’s main focus is the analysis of changes and trends in forced displacement from January to December 2023 among people covered by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency’s mandate. The data presented are based on information received as of 17 May 2024 unless otherwise indicated. At the end of 2023, the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide was estimated at 117.3 million. This figure encompasses refugees under UNHCR’s mandate as well as Palestine refugees under the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)’s mandate, asylum-seekers, internally displaced people (IDPs) and other people in need of international protection.

New and ongoing conflicts have driven forced displacement across the globe. Conflict in Sudan broke out in April 2023, causing one of the largest humanitarian and displacement crises in the world. More than 6 million people were displaced within the country, with a further 1.2 million fleeing to neighbouring countries. In Myanmar, escalating violence following the military takeover in February 2021, displaced more than 1.3 million people within the country in 2023. While in the State of Palestine, UNRWA estimates that between October and December 2023, up to 1.7 million people (or over 75 per cent of the population) were displaced by the conflict in the Gaza Strip, with some forced to flee multiple times.