Data for 1997

Refugee Population by Country of Asylum, 1997

Name: Refugee Population by Country of Asylum, 1997
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 1997, as UNHCR published them · stored as published, never rewritten

Refugee Population by Country of Asylum, 1997 covers 147 countries. Iran is highest, at 1,982,553; Moldova is lowest, at 0. The middle country reads 5,520. Against 1996, 140 values changed (59 up, 81 down), 4 countries joined, 1 left.

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Refugee Population by Country of Asylum · Data for 1997

HighestIran

1,982,553

LowestMoldova

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

147countries
1measure
1997the year it describes
142distinct valueswhole numbers, as published
Sep 26, 2026read from the publisher
CC BY 4.0licence

01Values only

The table

Every country and every column of Refugee Population by Country of Asylum, 1997, as published. The file carries values only, so no position is shown. “=” marks a shared position.

Search this table

Showing 25 of 147 countries · select a heading to sort

Refugee Population by Country of Asylum, 1997: every country, as published by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.

Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	1,982,553
Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	1,202,733
Germany`DEU`Western Europe	1,049,000
Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	570,367
United States`USA`Northern America	563,813
Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	550,064
Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	435,294
Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	374,414
Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	323,064
DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	297,536
China`CHN`Eastern Asia	291,506
Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	237,720
Azerbaijan`AZE`Western Asia	233,716
Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	232,097
India`IND`Southern Asia	223,072
Armenia`ARM`Western Asia	219,000
Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	208,509
Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	188,512
Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	186,719
Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	170,736
Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	169,154
Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	165,072
France`FRA`Western Europe	146,558
Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	129,158
Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	126,882
Canada`CAN`Northern America	125,176
Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	118,057
United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	107,933
Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	104,032
Austria`AUT`Western Europe	84,394
Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	83,205
Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	68,863
Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	68,106
Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	66,601
Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	66,056
Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	57,220
Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	47,372
Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	47,057
Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	40,965
Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	40,000
Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	38,490
Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	36,060
Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	34,227
Mexico`MEX`Central America	31,892
Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	23,589
Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	23,114
Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	22,853
Syria`SYR`Western Asia	22,705
Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	22,027
Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	21,603
Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	20,700
Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	15,982
Turkmenistan`TKM`Central Asia	15,787
Kazakhstan`KAZ`Central Asia	15,585
Kyrgyzstan`KGZ`Central Asia	15,276
Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	15,000
Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	13,015
Togo`TGO`Western Africa	12,682
Mali`MLI`Western Africa	12,552
Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	12,017
Argentina`ARG`South America	10,522
Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	9,361
Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	9,071
Libya`LBY`Northern Africa	8,477
Belize`BLZ`Central America	8,387
Papua New Guinea`PNG`Melanesia	8,198
Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	7,512
Niger`NER`Western Africa	7,374
Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	7,276
South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	6,816
Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	6,486
Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	5,890
Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	5,833
Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	5,520
Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	5,512
Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	5,277
Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	5,133
Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	4,846
Ukraine`UKR`Eastern Europe	4,566
Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	3,787
New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	3,652
North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	3,500
Uzbekistan`UZB`Central Asia	3,150
Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	3,062
Benin`BEN`Western Africa	2,914
Eritrea`ERI`Eastern Africa	2,606
Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	2,502
Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	2,448
Brazil`BRA`South America	2,260
Tajikistan`TJK`Central Asia	2,176
Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	1,799
Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	1,731
Guatemala`GTM`Central America	1,501
Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	1,274
Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	1,224
Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	864
Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	835
Solomon Islands`SLB`Melanesia	800
Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	800
Slovakia`SVK`Eastern Europe	746
Peru`PER`South America	744
Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	731
Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	700
Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	638
Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	631
Somalia`SOM`Eastern Africa	622
Panama`PAN`Central America	618
Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	591
United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	519
Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	497
Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	462
Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	430
Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	382
Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	334
Bolivia`BOL`South America	331
Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	310
Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	306
Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	298
Venezuela`VEN`South America	290
Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	280
Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	278
Chile`CHL`South America	270
Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	252
Colombia`COL`South America	223
Ecuador`ECU`South America	218
Georgia`GEO`Western Asia	161
Uruguay`URY`South America	134
El Salvador`SLV`Central America	106
Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	69
Bahamas`BHS`Caribbean	58
Belarus`BLR`Eastern Europe	50
Paraguay`PRY`South America	48
Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	42
Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	38
Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	34
Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	31
Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	29
Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	21
Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	16
Suriname`SUR`South America	11
Honduras`HND`Central America	9
Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	5
Lithuania`LTU`Northern Europe	5
Saint Lucia`LCA`Caribbean	5
Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	5
South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	5
Moldova`MDA`Eastern Europe	0

02In 1997

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

Iran1,982,553
Pakistan1,202,733
Germany1,049,000
Tanzania570,367
United States563,813

Lowest

Moldova0
Singaporeshared5
Lithuaniashared5
Saint Luciashared5
South Koreashared5

Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score. The middle country reads 5,520. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

031996 → 1997

Since 1996

What changed between 1996 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

+4 / −1countries joined / left
140values changed, of 143 in both
59 · 81rose · fell
3unchanged

Rose most

Tanzania498,732 → 570,367+71,635
Thailand107,962 → 169,154+61,192
Bosnia and Herzegovina0 → 40,000+40,000
Zambia131,139 → 165,072+33,933
Netherlands102,573 → 118,057+15,484

Fell most

DR Congo675,972 → 297,536−378,436
Guinea663,849 → 435,294−228,555
Germany1,266,000 → 1,049,000−217,000
Côte d’Ivoire327,696 → 208,509−119,187
Croatia165,395 → 68,863−96,532

+ Saint Lucia

+ Lithuania

+ Moldova

+ Suriname

− Fiji

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

142 distinct values among 147
Values are stored exactly as published. 5 countries share 5. Countries sharing a value share a position too.
Nothing missing
Every one of the 147 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
147 rows · 4.3 KB · UTF-8, opens in Excel
Opens with 11 lines of source notes; the table starts on row 13.
Download refugees-hosted-1997-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=1997&yearTo=1997&coa_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 (1997). Refugee Population by Country of Asylum, 1997 [data set], describing 1997. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/refugees-hosted/1997

0636 held

Other years

‹ The year before
Refugee Population by Country of Asylum, 1996
144 countries
The year after ›
Refugee Population by Country of Asylum, 1998
145 countries
All of them
Refugee Population by Country of Asylum: every year
36 held, with the data dictionary, coverage and licence.
How it has moved, charted by country

07Questions