Over the last ten years, the number of refugees worldwide has more than doubled. Our refugee population surpassed 30 million in 2022. But it’s a frequent misconception about where refugees go. Those impacted by the biggest refugee crisis in history typically lack the means to travel to wealthy nations like North America or Europe. However, the 2022 development of the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine has caused a little shift in the top ten nations that receive migrants. Instead, they seek asylum in neighboring countries.

According to UNHCR data, here are the top 10 countries hosting the most refugees:

1. Iran

Iran’s refugee population increased from 840,000 to nearly 3.4 million in 2023, the biggest increase on record. A rise in refugees from neighboring Afghanistan is primarily to blame, except for more than 11,000 Iraqi refugees and a small number of asylum-seekers from Kuwait, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan. However, the country’s current classification of refugees and efforts to legitimize previously undocumented refugees are mostly to blame for this. These actions resulted in the documentation of almost 2.6 million Afghans as refugees in the second half of 2022.

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2. Turkey

Turkey is now hosting more than 3.36 million refugees. 3.33 million of them are “Syrians under temporary protection.” While many still live in substandard conditions, the majority of Syrians in Turkey reside in host communities rather than unofficial tented settlements. Additionally, Turkey is home to more than 12,000 refugees from Iraq, almost 13,000 from Afghanistan, and more than 5,300 from Iran.

To address urgent financial and livelihood needs, Concern is taking part in the biggest cash-grant program in the world, which is funded by the EU. Additionally, we are still helping populations in Syria and Turkey that were impacted by the catastrophic earthquake that struck in February 2023.

3. Germany

Germany was the only high-income nation to rank among the top refugee-receiving nations in recent years. The crisis in Ukraine escalated in 2022, creating sizable host groups in Russia and Poland. Additionally, Germany’s refugee population has doubled in less than a year, making it the second-largest host community globally. Germany took in 1.2 million refugees at the start of 2022. According to recent UNHCR figures, there are 2.5 million as 2024 approaches. Among them are more than 1 million Ukrainians, around 693,000 Syrians, 240,000 Afghans, and more than 150,000 Iraqis.

4. Pakistan

Nearly all of the 2.08 million refugees living in Pakistan are from Afghanistan. Many first fled the ten-year Soviet-Afghan War and have been in the nation for decades. In 2001, the number of Afghan refugees in the nation skyrocketed, with many of them relocating to the province of Balochistan, which is located directly across the border. Many refugee families have endured substandard living conditions for generations due to the prolonged nature of these displacements. Since floods are common in the coastal province of Balochistan and border closures brought on by the pandemic have impacted communities and economies in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, climate change and, more recently, COVID-19 have made issues more problematic.

5. Ugandan

In recent years, Ugandan policymakers have modified policies to provide secure and respectable accommodation for a growing number of refugees, which increased from 477,000 in 2015 to over 1.5 million in 2023. South Sudan accounts for more than 882,000, while the Democratic Republic of the Congo accounts for about half a million.

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6. Russia

The Russian Federation is now housing 1.24 million refugees, making it one of the biggest host communities in the world as of 2022. These refugees are almost exclusively from Ukraine, a neighboring country.

7. Poland

Poland, which shares a border with Russia became one of the nations that took in the most refugees as a result of the conflict in Ukraine escalating in 2022. There are currently around 989,000 refugees in Poland, many of whom are from Ukraine. Additionally, there are thousands of Russian and Belarusian refugees.

8.Bangladesh

The majority of the 961,000 refugees who are now residing in Bangladesh are stateless Rohingya, who started applying for asylum in large numbers in 2017 following the outbreak of violence in Rakhine State, Myanmar. During that time, the largest refugee camp in the world was established in the city of Cox’s Bazar.

With increasingly extreme weather patterns, particularly during the monsoon season, Bangladesh has also been particularly heavily struck by climate change. Due to their informal housing, which is frequently damaged by fire and flood, refugee groups are particularly vulnerable to these dangers. The spread of illnesses like COVID-19 has also become a serious worry due to the tight quarters.

9. Sudan

Sudan is the cause of one of the biggest refugee crises in the world, but it also has one of the highest numbers of refugees seeking asylum (more than 926,000 as of mid-2023). More than 680,000 South Sudanese refugees currently reside there, although more have left the nation as a result of the continuous violence and instability. Over 295,000 Sudanese refugees are now being accommodated in South Sudan, since the majority of migrants end up in neighboring countries.

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10. Ethiopia

There are more than 867,000 refugees in Ethiopia. The majority have fled crisis in Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia, and neighboring South Sudan. Supporting these refugee and internally displaced groups has been more difficult in recent years due to COVID-19, which has resulted in shortages of medical supplies like prescription drugs and diagnostic tools as well as closures of educational opportunities for a large portion of 2020. Additionally, the nation is still getting over the worst of the Horn of Africa crisis, which was a multi-year drought that still affects both host and refugee groups.