Data for 2017

Refugees by Country of Origin, 2017

Name: Refugees by Country of Origin, 2017
Creator: UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency
License: https://www.unhcr.org/what-we-do/data-and-publications/data-and-statistics/terms-use-datasets

Figures for 2017, as UNHCR published them · stored as published, never rewritten

Refugees by Country of Origin, 2017 covers 193 countries. Syria is highest, at 6,310,498; 10 countries share the lowest reading, 0. The middle country reads 913. Against 2016, 173 values changed (116 up, 57 down), 3 countries joined.

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Refugees by Country of Origin · Data for 2017

HighestSyria

6,310,498

Lowest10 countries share it

Shaded by value in five groups of equal size, darkest at the highest end.

193countries
1measure
2017the year it describes
166distinct valueswhole numbers, as published
Sep 26, 2026read from the publisher
CC BY 4.0licence

01Values only

The table

Every country and every column of Refugees by Country of Origin, 2017, as published. The file carries values only, so no position is shown. “=” marks a shared position.

Search this table

Showing 25 of 193 countries · select a heading to sort

Refugees by Country of Origin, 2017: every country, as published by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.

Syria`SYR`Western Asia	6,310,498
Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	2,624,265
South Sudan`SSD`Eastern Africa	2,439,888
Myanmar`MMR`South-eastern Asia	1,156,742
Somalia`SOM`Eastern Africa	986,386
Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	694,556
DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	620,805
Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	545,513
Eritrea`ERI`Eastern Africa	486,209
Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	439,320
Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	362,536
Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	334,064
Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	258,986
Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	238,977
China`CHN`Eastern Asia	207,716
Colombia`COL`South America	191,635
Mali`MLI`Western Africa	150,305
Ukraine`UKR`Eastern Europe	139,581
Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	128,914
Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	118,639
Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	115,632
Palestine`PSE`Western Asia	99,630
Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	87,448
Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	61,584
Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	61,383
Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	40,009
Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	36,525
Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	33,246
Haiti`HTI`Caribbean	28,424
Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	26,584
El Salvador`SLV`Central America	25,876
Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	24,869
Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	23,555
Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	22,106
Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	20,333
Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	17,690
Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	17,420
Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	16,959
Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	16,780
Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	16,325
Guatemala`GTM`Central America	16,284
Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	14,564
Honduras`HND`Central America	14,424
Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	13,295
Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	12,485
Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	12,238
Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	12,168
Mexico`MEX`Central America	11,679
Libya`LBY`Northern Africa	11,205
Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	11,032
Azerbaijan`AZE`Western Asia	10,893
Armenia`ARM`Western Asia	10,786
Venezuela`VEN`South America	9,272
Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	8,415
Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	8,292
Togo`TGO`Western Africa	8,115
Bhutan`BTN`Southern Asia	7,954
India`IND`Southern Asia	7,926
Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	7,567
Laos`LAO`South-eastern Asia	7,056
Georgia`GEO`Western Asia	6,535
Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	6,409
Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	6,039
Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	5,331
Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	5,301
Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	4,496
Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	4,021
Belarus`BLR`Eastern Europe	3,650
Uzbekistan`UZB`Central Asia	3,405
Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	3,336
Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	3,089
Kyrgyzstan`KGZ`Central Asia	2,771
Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	2,694
Peru`PER`South America	2,588
Kazakhstan`KAZ`Central Asia	2,406
Moldova`MDA`Eastern Europe	2,339
Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	2,227
Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	2,224
Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	2,119
Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	1,870
Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	1,826
Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	1,761
North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	1,653
Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	1,467
Tajikistan`TJK`Central Asia	1,369
Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	1,368
Niger`NER`Western Africa	1,363
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines`VCT`Caribbean	1,311
Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	1,272
Ecuador`ECU`South America	1,251
Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	1,219
Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	1,210
North Korea`PRK`Eastern Asia	1,176
Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	1,123
Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	1,097
Saint Lucia`LCA`Caribbean	995
Slovakia`SVK`Eastern Europe	913
Brazil`BRA`South America	851
Fiji`FJI`Melanesia	734
Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	716
Montenegro`MNE`Southern Europe	704
Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	655
Comoros`COM`Eastern Africa	600
Benin`BEN`Western Africa	572
Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	540
Bolivia`BOL`South America	520
Bahrain`BHR`Western Asia	497
Chile`CHL`South America	493
Israel`ISR`Western Asia	469
South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	461
Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	445
Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	434
Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	427
Papua New Guinea`PNG`Melanesia	406
Bahamas`BHS`Caribbean	378
Turkmenistan`TKM`Central Asia	365
Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	310
United States`USA`Northern America	310
Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	292
Estonia`EST`Northern Europe	288
Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	279
Guyana`GUY`South America	260
Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	260
South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	239
Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	231
Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	216
Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	195
Barbados`BRB`Caribbean	172
Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	164
Latvia`LVA`Northern Europe	162
United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	137
Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	130
Equatorial Guinea`GNQ`Middle Africa	127
Argentina`ARG`South America	121
Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	106
Grenada`GRD`Caribbean	103
Antigua and Barbuda`ATG`Caribbean	99
United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	85
Paraguay`PRY`South America	77
Canada`CAN`Northern America	75
Lithuania`LTU`Northern Europe	73
Germany`DEU`Western Europe	66
Belize`BLZ`Central America	64
Maldives`MDV`Southern Asia	64
Solomon Islands`SLB`Melanesia	57
France`FRA`Western Europe	54
Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	52
Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	52
Saint Kitts and Nevis`KNA`Caribbean	51
Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	48
Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	48
Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	44
Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	39
Oman`OMN`Western Asia	39
Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	39
Panama`PAN`Central America	36
Curaçao`CUW`Caribbean	35
New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	34
Tonga`TON`Polynesia	34
Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	31
São Tomé and Príncipe`STP`Middle Africa	31
Dominica`DMA`Caribbean	26
Niue`NIU`Polynesia	19
Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	17
Suriname`SUR`South America	17
Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	16
Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	15
Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	14
Turks and Caicos Islands`TCA`Caribbean	14
Timor-Leste`TLS`South-eastern Asia	13
Uruguay`URY`South America	12
Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	11
Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	10
Austria`AUT`Western Europe	10
Seychelles`SYC`Eastern Africa	10
Marshall Islands`MHL`Micronesia	7
Cayman Islands`CYM`Caribbean	6
Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	6
Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	5
Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	5
Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	5
Monaco`MCO`Western Europe	5
Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	5
Andorra`AND`Southern Europe	0
Brunei`BRN`South-eastern Asia	0
Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	0
Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	0
Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	0
Macau`MAC`Eastern Asia	0
Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	0
Palau`PLW`Micronesia	0
Samoa`WSM`Polynesia	0
Vanuatu`VUT`Melanesia	0

02In 2017

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

Syria6,310,498
Afghanistan2,624,265
South Sudan2,439,888
Myanmar1,156,742
Somalia986,386

Lowest

Samoashared0
Vanuatushared0
Palaushared0
Maltashared0
Macaushared0

Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score. The middle country reads 913. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

032016 → 2017

Since 2016

What changed between 2016 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

+3 / −0countries joined / left
173values changed, of 190 in both
116 · 57rose · fell
17unchanged

Rose most

South Sudan1,436,707 → 2,439,888+1,003,181
Syria5,524,511 → 6,310,498+785,987
Myanmar490,285 → 1,156,742+666,457
Afghanistan2,501,447 → 2,624,265+122,818
DR Congo537,474 → 620,805+83,331

Fell most

Colombia311,059 → 191,635−119,424
Ukraine239,062 → 139,581−99,481
Rwanda286,063 → 258,986−27,077
Somalia1,012,320 → 986,386−25,934
Côte d’Ivoire46,811 → 40,009−6,802

+ Malta

+ Palau

+ Vanuatu

Changes in value, not in places: a country’s place also moves when others do. Every country’s full history is charted on the statistic page.

04Caveats

Read before you use

What this edition’s numbers are and are not, worked out from the file itself.

How values are stored

166 distinct values among 193
Values are stored exactly as published. 10 countries share 0. Countries sharing a value share a position too.
Nothing missing
Every one of the 193 countries has every column.

05The files

Download and cite

The table as a file, digit for digit, what this site changed, and a citation for this edition.

Licence in full

.csv
For a spreadsheet or code
193 rows · 5.1 KB · UTF-8, opens in Excel
Opens with 11 lines of source notes; the table starts on row 13.
Download refugees-by-origin-2017-nations-inquiry.csv
↗
The publisher’s original
UNHCR’s own file, on its own site.
https://api.unhcr.org/population/v1/population/?limit=1000&yearFrom=2017&yearTo=2017&coo_all=true

What this site changed: Reshaped into one row per country: regional and income-group totals are left out, only the columns listed are kept, each row gets its ISO 3166 code, and some country names are brought to one spelling. No value is recalculated, rescaled or rounded.

Licence: CC BY 4.0 · what it allows, in plain words

Cite this edition

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency (2017). Refugees by Country of Origin, 2017 [data set], describing 2017. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/refugees-by-origin/2017

0634 held

Other years

‹ The year before
Refugees by Country of Origin, 2016
190 countries
The year after ›
Refugees by Country of Origin, 2018
191 countries
All of them
Refugees by Country of Origin: every year
34 held, with the data dictionary, coverage and licence.
How it has moved, charted by country

07Questions