UNHCR reports that nearly 14.7 million refugees and internally displaced people returned to their homes in 2025
We use Google Cloud Translation Services. Google requires we provide the following disclaimer relating to use of this service:
This service may contain translations powered by Google. Google disclaims all warranties related to the translations, expressed or implied, including any warranties of accuracy, reliability, and any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and noninfringement.
Around 5.4 million people worldwide fled their homes in 2025 due to conflict and persecution. With this, the total number of people in refugee or refugee-like situations reached 41.6 million .
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has made this fact public. According to the UNHCR, about 6 million of those displaced are Palestinian refugees.
Similarly, about 14.7 million refugees and internally displaced people returned to their homes in 2025, according to the UNHCR.
Which is a 50 percent increase in the number of people returning home compared to 2024. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine and Myanmar have seen the highest number of people returning home.
However, the UNHCR has stated that most of the people who have returned to their countries are living a difficult life. In 2025, about 2.9 million Afghans returned home, including 1.9 million refugees. This number is almost five times higher than in 2024.
The UNHCR report states that they were forced to return home after neighboring countries Pakistan and Iran cracked down on Afghan refugees. The number of Afghan refugees worldwide fell from 5.8 million in 2024 to 3.7 million in 2025.
In Syria, which has been ravaged by civil war for more than a decade, about 1.3 million people returned home in 2025 after the fall of Bashar al-Assad's government in December 2024.
As a result, the number of Syrian refugees worldwide fell from 6 million to 4.9 million by the end of 2025.
'However, many returnees face serious challenges, including insecurity, widespread destruction, poor economic conditions, limited services and employment, and ongoing violence in some parts of the country,' the report says.
The crisis in West Asia is expected to increase the number of people displaced globally in 2026, the report said. Nearly 3.2 million people have been temporarily displaced in Iran since the US-Israeli invasion in late February.
Nearly one million people have been displaced since March due to Israeli attacks and land grabs in Lebanon, the UNHCR said.
The UNHCR said it aims to halve the number of people in need of long-term displacement and humanitarian assistance by 2035.
This includes efforts to create jobs and increase education opportunities in countries hosting refugees (especially low- and middle-income countries). Nearly 70 percent of refugees worldwide have been in countries such as Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iran and Pakistan for five years or more.
UNHCR High Commissioner Barham Salih said, "Asylum and protection are essential. But we cannot accept a situation where millions of refugees remain stranded for years or decades without any real prospect of rebuilding their lives.'
