Last update: June 2023 | Next update: June 2024
- Current status
- Available data
- Recent resources
- Notes on the data
Worldwide, about 43.3 million children had been displaced as a consequence of conflict and violence as of the end of 2022
This number includes some 17.5 million child refugees and asylum seekers (14.2 million refugees under UNHCR mandate and other children in need of international protection[1], 1.8 million Palestine children registered as refugees with UNRWA[2]) and around 1.5 million asylum-seeking children) and an estimated 25.8 million children displaced within their own country by violence and conflict. On top of those numbers come another 3.8 million more children living in internal displacement as consequence of natural disasters.
Between 2010 and 2022, the global number of forcibly displaced child refugees and asylum seekers more than doubled from around 20.6 million to the current number of 43.3 million. By comparison, during the same period the total number of non-refugee child migrants rose by only 10 per cent. According to UNHCR, over 1.9 million children were born as refugees from 2018 to 2022.
Children are dramatically over-represented among the world’s refugees. Children make up less than one third of the global population, but more than 41 per cent among the world’s refugees in 2022. Among the international migrants (or foreign born population), in 2020, nearly 1 in 3 children were refugees; for adults, the proportion was less than 1 in 20.
Footnotes
[1] The category “Other people in need of international protection” (OIP) refers to “people who are outside their country or territory of origin, typically because they have been forcibly displaced across international borders, who have not been reported under other categories (asylum-seekers, refugees, people in refugee-like situations) but who likely need international protection, including protection against forced return, as well as access to basic services on a temporary or longer-term basis” (Source: UNHCR 2023, Global Trends 2022 (p. 4).
[2] In total, 5.9 million Palestine refugees are registered in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and the West Bank) with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). These refugees are outside of the mandate of UNHCR.
Read more
Displacement data
Build and download your own customisable dataset
Query data
Resources
Responsible Disaggregation of Data on Refugee Children
Guidance
Stronger Data, Brighter Futures: Protecting children on the move with data and evidence
Publications
Missing from the story: The urgent need for better data to protect children on the move
Publications
Uncertain Pathways: How gender shapes the experiences of children on the move
Publications
Integrated Data Ecosystem Assessment and Strengthening (IDEAS) tool for migrant and refugee children
Guidance
Migrant and displaced children in the age of COVID-19
Journal articles
International Data Alliance for Children on the Move (IDAC)
Lost at home: The risks and challenges for internally displaced children and the urgent actions needed to protect them
Publications
Children on the move: Building migration data capacities
Publications
Lack of quality data compounds risks facing millions of displaced and migrant children
A Right to be Heard – Listening to children and young people on the move
Publications
A right to be heard – interactive dashboard
Interactive data visualizations
Data snapshot of migrant and displaced children in Africa
Publications
Data gaps and mixed migration between West and North Africa and Europe
Publications
Children on the Move: Key facts and figures
Publications
A Call to Action: Protecting children on the move starts with better data
Publications
A Child is a Child – Protecting children on the move from violence, abuse and exploitation
Publications
Harrowing Journeys – Children and youth on the move across the Mediterranean Sea
Publications
Uprooted: The growing crisis for refugee and migrant children
Publications
Notes on the data
Definitions
International migrants: Persons living in a country or area other than their country of birth.
Refugees: Person who are outside their country of nationality or habitual residence, who cannot return due to a well-founded fear of being persecuted because of their race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. This number only accounts those who have been recognized as refugees or find themselves in refugee-like situations. Data are presented in thousands.
Asylum seeker: Persons whose application for asylum or refugee status is pending at any stage in the asylum procedure. If granted, persons are regarded as refugees. Data are presented in thousands.
Internal displaced persons: Persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized border. Data presented in this table refer only to persons displaced due to conflict and violence. Data are presented in thousands.
Other people in need of international protection (OIP): People who are outside their country or territory of origin, typically because they have been forcibly displaced across international borders, who have not been reported under other categories (asylum-seekers, refugees, people in refugee-like situations) but who likely need international protection, including protection against forced return, as well as access to basic services on a temporary or longer-term basis.“ Venezuelans previously designated as “Venezuelans displaced abroad” are included in this new category. This change has been made retroactively in UNHCR’s statistics since 2018.
Sources
Total population by country or area: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, 2022 Revision of World Population Prospects, United Nations, New York, 2022.
International migrants by country of destination: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, Trends in International Migrant Stock: The 2019 Revision, United Nations, New York, 2017. Share of under 18 calculated by UNICEF based on United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, Trends in International Migrant Stock: Migrants by Age and Sex, United Nations, New York, 2019.
International migrants by country of origin: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, Trends in International Migrant Stock: Migrants by Destination and Origin. United Nations, New York, 2019.
Refugees by country of asylum: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2022, UNHCR, Geneva, 2023.
Refugees by country of origin: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2022. UNHCR, Geneva, 2023. Share of under 18 from UNHCR unpublished data, cited with permission.
Asylum seekers: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2022, UNHCR, Geneva, 2023.
Internally displaced persons (IDPs): Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, Global Internal Displacement Database (GIDD), IDMC, 2023.
UNRWA Palestine refugees: UNRWA Registered Population Dashboard, UNRWA, 2023 (as of 6 June 2023)
Related Topics
- Migration
- Displacement
