Geographies in Depth

Europe's refugee and migrant crisis in 2016. In numbers

An aerial view shows the Zaatari refugee camp, near the Jordanian city of Mafraq July 18, 2013. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spent about 40 minutes with half a dozen refugees who vented their frustration at the international community's failure to end Syria's more than two-year-old civil war, while visiting the camp that holds roughly 115,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan about 12 km (eight miles) from the Syrian border. REUTERS/Mandel Ngan/Pool (JORDAN - Tags: POLITICS SOCIETY IMMIGRATION TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTX11QHF

The full scale of Europe's refugee crisis. Image: REUTERS/Mandel Ngan/Pool

Emma Batha
Journalist, Thomson Reuters Foundation

Last year more than 1 million refugees and migrants arrived in Europe, many fleeing wars in Asia and the Middle East.

Trust Women, an annual women's right and trafficking conference organised by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, will discuss solutions for tackling the crisis on Wednesday.

Below are some facts.

 The world's top 10 refugee host countries
Image: Amnesty

Global Displacement Crisis

- At the end of 2015 there were 65.3 million forcibly displaced people. They included 21.3 million refugees, 40.8 million internally displaced and 3.2 million asylum seekers.

- If they were a country they would be the world's 21st largest.

- More than half of refugees come from just three countries: Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia.

- Developing regions host 86 percent of refugees.

- Turkey hosts by far the largest number with more than 3 million refugees and asylum-seekers, including 2.7 million Syrians.

- Lebanon has the highest concentration relative to its own population with nearly one in five people a refugee.

- Globally, nearly one in 200 children is a refugee. The number of child refugees has more than doubled in the last decade.

- Growing numbers of children are crossing borders alone. Last year, more than 100,000 unaccompanied minors applied for asylum in 78 countries - triple the number in 2014.

- The U.N. refugee agency estimates more than 1.19 million people will need to be resettled next year.

 Child refugees
Image: UNICEF

European Refugee and Migrant Crisis

- Nearly 370,000 refugees and migrants have arrived in Europe this year, most of them by sea.

- More than 173,000 have arrived in Greece and more than 167,000 in Italy.

- The main nationalities are Syrian, Afghan, Nigerian, Pakistani, Iraqi and Eritrean.

- More than 75,500 refugees and migrants are stranded in Greece and the Western Balkans after Hungary and other countries shut their borders, closing off routes to central and western Europe.

- Numbers crossing from Turkey to Greece fell sharply after the European Union struck a deal with Ankara in March to stem the flow.

- At least 4,690 migrants have died in the Mediterranean this year while trying to reach Europe, compared to 3,777 in 2015. Most have died while crossing from North Africa.

 Trend of global displacement and proportion displaced 1996-2015
Image: UNHCR

(Source: UNHCR, UNICEF, IOM)

Loading...
Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Stay up to date:

Migration

Related topics:
Geographies in DepthResilience, Peace and Security
Share:
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how Migration is affecting economies, industries and global issues
World Economic Forum logo

Forum Stories newsletter

Bringing you weekly curated insights and analysis on the global issues that matter.

Subscribe today

What's 'bi-globalization' and could this be the near future for geo-economics and global trade?

Braz Baracuhy

December 19, 2024

5 reasons small businesses and startups are thriving in the Gulf

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum