Stats and Impact
The UNHCR declared on May 23, 2022, that the number of people forcibly displaced as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights abuses, and events that severely disrupt public order had surpassed 100 million – an unprecedented figure. This implies that one in every 78 individuals worldwide has been compelled to flee their homes, a momentous milestone that would have been inconceivable a decade ago.
The UNHCR estimates that out of the 89. 3 million forcibly displaced people, an estimated 36.5 million (41%) are children below 18 years of age. UNHCR estimates that more than 1.5 million children were born into refugee life between 2018 and 2021, equivalent to some 380,000 children per year. This represents an increase of more than 300,000 children compared to the number of births registered by or reported to UNHCR.
According to UNHCR, the burden of hosting refugees is not equally shared between countries. As seen in Figure 3, at mid-year 2022, 71% of refugees were hosted by developing countries. The remaining 29% were hosted in countries in the developed regions. In comparison, 74% of refugees are hosted in upper-middle-income countries (36%), lower-middle-income countries (20% and low-income countries (18%).
Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees, with 3.7 million people. Colombia is second with more than 2.5 million, following that Germany with more than 2.2 million, as of mid 2022, including other people in need of international protection.
In the UK, the annual number of asylum applications peaked in 2002 at 84,132. After that the number fell sharply to reach a twenty-year low point of 17,916 in 2010. It rose steadily throughout the 2010s, then sharply in 2021 and again in 2022 to reach 74,751 applications, the highest annual number since 2002. The 74,751 applications made in 2022 related to 89,398 individuals (main applicants and dependents).
The table below shows the ten largest groups of foreign nationals applying for asylum in EU countries in 2021. The largest groups were nationals of Syria (116,110), Afghanistan (99,775), Iraq (29,920), Pakistan (24,775) and Turkey (22,205):
