The largest refugee crises to know in 2026

In 2015, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) recorded 16.1 million refugees around the world. In the last ten years, that population has nearly doubled, with 30.5 million refugees recorded in the organization’s latest report. Displacement at large has also continued to soar, with over 121 million people around the world forced to leave their homes. 

The UNHCR collects data throughout the year on the number of refugees around the world and publishes an annual report in June and a mid-year report in November. As we enter 2026, their latest report gives us a better sense of the largest refugee crises at the moment (though numbers can change frequently). Of the 30.5 million refugees around the world, nearly 83% come from these ten countries — and more than two-thirds come from just the top five.

10. Eritrea

Ongoing violence and political instability in Eritrea have made it one of the largest refugee crises for the last several years. In the last decade, the global population of Eritrean refugees has more than doubled, with an estimated 560,000 people currently displaced. This represents about 17% of the country’s population. 

9. Central African Republic

For more than a decade, a humanitarian crisis in the Central African Republic has gone largely unnoticed in global media. Conflict broke out in 2012 and eventually led to a nearly 360% increase in Central African refugees. 

Despite violence decreasing significantly in 2021 and several thousand Central Africans returning home in the last few years, there are still over 683,000 civilians registered as refugees as progress is made towards a sustainable peace.

» Learn more about Concern’s work in the Central African Republic

8. Somalia

Decades of crisis in Somalia have led to ongoing displacement for hundreds of thousands of civilians. Last year, numbers were at their highest since 2019, with over 860,000 Somali refugees registered around the world. In late 2025, that number has exceeded 903,000. 

This represents only about 18% of Somalia’s displacement crisis. An additional 244,000 Somalis are waiting to receive asylum status, and nearly 3.5 million are internally displaced within the country.

» Learn more about Concern’s work in Somalia

7. Democratic Republic of the Congo

Last year, the number of refugees fleeing decades of crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo exceeded 1 million. At the end of 2025, the total is nearly 1.15 million. 

This is a first in nearly 75 years of UNHCR’s record-keeping for the DRC, and a doubling of refugees from the country in the last ten years. In 2022, violence in the eastern provinces (particularly North and South Kivu) escalated and has continued for the last three years.

» Learn more about Concern’s work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

6. Myanmar & the Rohingya crisis

Violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State displaced nearly 750,000 stateless Rohingya in just a few weeks. Ultimately, of the 1.46 million refugees from Myanmar, the Rohingya make up the majority, however many others have fled ongoing conflict and instability in the country, which have escalated since 2017. 

5. South Sudan

South Sudan’s refugee population has dropped a bit in the last year, from 2.98 million reported last year to 2.38 million reported at the end of 2025. This brings the displacement down from a peak, but still leaves many civilians in need of essential services (including nearly 1 million who have been internally displaced in protection of civilian or POC sites). 

» Learn more about Concern’s work in South Sudan

4. Sudan

Following the outbreak of conflict in April 2023, the crisis in Sudan has continued to worsen. Nearly 2.5 million Sudanese refugees were recorded at the end of 2025, a 65% increase compared to the start of hostilities, and nearly triple the amount of pre-war figures. Even more are internally displaced (with the UNHCR recording some 10 million IDPs). 

» Learn more about Concern’s work in Sudan

» Learn more about how you can help Sudanese refugees

3. Afghanistan

Decades of crisis in Afghanistan have made it one of the top countries of origin for refugees. One in every five refugees is Afghan. In late 2023 and early 2024, several hundred thousand returned following a policy change in Pakistan, however there are still over 4.77 million Afghan refugees in the world (including many who have been born in displacement and never set foot in their ancestral home). 

» Learn more about Concern’s work in Afghanistan

2. Ukraine

In February 2022, ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine led to a full-blown humanitarian crisis which led to the rapid displacement of over 5.3 million Ukrainians as of November 2025. This represents a drop compared to figures in 2022 and 2023, but an increase compared to 2024. Approximately 3.75 million Ukrainians are also internally displaced throughout the country.

» Learn more about Concern’s work in Ukraine

» Learn more about how you can help Ukraine

1. Syria

Since last December, Syria has experienced tremendous political and social change as the country’s protracted crisis entered its fifteenth year. Hundreds of thousands of refugees have returned home in the last twelve months, but it remains the largest crisis at the end of 2025, with over 5.48 million refugees (down from 5.95 million at the end of 2024). 

Even as many Syrians have been able to return home, they will continue to require support as they rebuild their communities and their lives. For many refugees around the world, coming home is the ultimate goal, but it’s not the end of the story. Concern is prepared to offer that support as part of our work in Syria and the region.

» Learn more about Concern’s work in Syria

Concern’s work with refugees

Emergency response is part of Concern’s DNA and working with refugee communities in this context has become a core skill for our teams over the last six decades. We work with both refugee communities and host countries to ease the pressure that mass displacement can put on a host community. In addition to meeting the frontline needs — including food, shelter, protection, and other non-food essentials — we also work with refugees on longer-term initiatives, including skill-building and livelihood development and psychosocial support. 

We also put a special focus on the needs of child refugees (who make up 40% of the global refugee population), including education, family support, and providing safe spaces where they can play and enjoy their childhood. 

Last year, we responded to 66 emergencies in 20 countries, reaching nearly 15.5 million people. This included:

• Playing an essential role in NGO coordination in Chad and collaborating with a consortium of NGOs on the cross-border response to support Sudanese refugees. 
• Rehabilitating temporary shelters in Lebanon, including preparing them for harsh winter conditions, in communities hosting a total of 39,700 Syrian refugees.
• Working with nearly 84,000 Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh on ways of preventing malnutrition within their families.

---

*All numbers are via the UNHCR’s Refugee Statistics Portal and include refugees under UNHCR mandate. For the purposes of this article and to keep data consistent, we do not include Venezuelans displaced abroad or Palestinians under UNRWA mandate, which are classified differently. Unfortunately, no one data set is going to give us the complete picture of our current global displacement crisis.