Data for 2021

Refugee Population by Country of Asylum, 2021

Name: Refugee Population by Country of Asylum, 2021
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 2021, as UNHCR published them · stored as published, never rewritten

Refugee Population by Country of Asylum, 2021 covers 179 countries. Türkiye is highest, at 3,759,817; 16 countries share the lowest reading, 0. The middle country reads 4,200. Against 2020, 158 values changed (109 up, 49 down), 3 countries joined, 1 left.

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Refugee Population by Country of Asylum · Data for 2021

HighestTürkiye

3,759,817

Lowest16 countries share it

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

179countries
1measure
2021the year it describes
163distinct 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, 2021, as published. The file carries values only, so no position is shown. “=” marks a shared position.

Search this table

Showing 25 of 179 countries · select a heading to sort

Refugee Population by Country of Asylum, 2021: every country, as published by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.

Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	3,759,817
Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	1,529,903
Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	1,491,070
Germany`DEU`Western Europe	1,255,694
Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	1,103,918
Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	918,907
Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	845,865
Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	821,283
Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	798,343
Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	712,823
Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	555,782
DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	524,148
France`FRA`Western Europe	499,914
Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	481,048
Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	457,269
United States`USA`Northern America	339,179
South Sudan`SSD`Eastern Africa	333,673
China`CHN`Eastern Asia	303,436
Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	280,686
Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	280,072
Niger`NER`Western Africa	249,945
Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	240,854
India`IND`Southern Asia	212,413
Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	207,101
Austria`AUT`Western Europe	152,514
Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	144,862
United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	137,078
Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	132,086
Canada`CAN`Northern America	130,125
Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	122,539
Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	121,896
Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	119,650
Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	118,829
Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	101,942
Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	100,510
Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	99,585
Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	97,890
Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	89,467
Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	81,491
Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	77,132
South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	75,512
Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	75,154
Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	74,063
Mexico`MEX`Central America	73,448
Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	66,949
Brazil`BRA`South America	61,956
Ecuador`ECU`South America	56,603
Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	55,606
Mali`MLI`Western Africa	49,975
Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	46,042
Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	40,765
Venezuela`VEN`South America	39,328
Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	36,023
Armenia`ARM`Western Asia	34,728
Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	26,045
Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	25,644
Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	25,010
Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	24,078
Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	23,232
Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	22,830
Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	21,529
Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	19,574
Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	16,277
Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	14,479
Syria`SYR`Western Asia	14,308
Somalia`SOM`Eastern Africa	13,804
Uzbekistan`UZB`Central Asia	13,032
Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	11,894
Papua New Guinea`PNG`Melanesia	11,839
Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	10,901
Tajikistan`TJK`Central Asia	10,724
Togo`TGO`Western Africa	10,683
Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	10,224
Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	9,982
Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	9,571
Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	9,483
Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	9,335
Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	9,305
Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	8,169
Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	7,272
Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	6,011
Peru`PER`South America	5,790
Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	5,741
Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	5,676
Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	4,875
Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	4,797
Paraguay`PRY`South America	4,484
Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	4,418
Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	4,349
Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	4,200
Argentina`ARG`South America	4,050
Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	3,733
Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	3,571
South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	3,559
Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	3,186
Libya`LBY`Northern Africa	3,141
Belarus`BLR`Eastern Europe	2,729
Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	2,651
Panama`PAN`Central America	2,542
Ukraine`UKR`Eastern Europe	2,382
Chile`CHL`South America	2,065
Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	1,909
Lithuania`LTU`Northern Europe	1,880
Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	1,846
Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	1,830
Georgia`GEO`Western Asia	1,818
New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	1,794
Benin`BEN`Western Africa	1,736
Azerbaijan`AZE`Western Asia	1,676
Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	1,508
Colombia`COL`South America	1,504
United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	1,355
Israel`ISR`Western Asia	1,191
Bolivia`BOL`South America	1,116
Slovakia`SVK`Eastern Europe	1,046
Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	1,020
Nauru`NRU`Micronesia	953
Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	907
Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	895
Uruguay`URY`South America	877
Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	839
Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	801
Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	720
Latvia`LVA`Northern Europe	705
Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	688
Guatemala`GTM`Central America	479
Kazakhstan`KAZ`Central Asia	352
Moldova`MDA`Eastern Europe	349
Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	345
Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	333
Estonia`EST`Northern Europe	321
Kyrgyzstan`KGZ`Central Asia	317
Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	313
Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	296
Oman`OMN`Western Asia	295
North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	292
Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	272
Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	271
Bahrain`BHR`Western Asia	256
Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	240
Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	199
Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	197
Montenegro`MNE`Southern Europe	175
Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	165
Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	162
Honduras`HND`Central America	144
Liechtenstein`LIE`Western Europe	133
Eritrea`ERI`Eastern Africa	121
Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	109
El Salvador`SLV`Central America	98
Belize`BLZ`Central America	86
Cayman Islands`CYM`Caribbean	57
Guyana`GUY`South America	40
Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	31
Suriname`SUR`South America	29
Comoros`COM`Eastern Africa	27
Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	24
Fiji`FJI`Melanesia	18
Monaco`MCO`Western Europe	17
Turkmenistan`TKM`Central Asia	16
Bahamas`BHS`Caribbean	10
Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	10
Turks and Caicos Islands`TCA`Caribbean	7
Anguilla`AIA`Caribbean	0
Aruba`ABW`Caribbean	0
Barbados`BRB`Caribbean	0
Brunei`BRN`South-eastern Asia	0
Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	0
Curaçao`CUW`Caribbean	0
Grenada`GRD`Caribbean	0
Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	0
Myanmar`MMR`South-eastern Asia	0
Saint Kitts and Nevis`KNA`Caribbean	0
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines`VCT`Caribbean	0
Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	0
Sint Maarten`SXM`Caribbean	0
Solomon Islands`SLB`Melanesia	0
Vanuatu`VUT`Melanesia	0
Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	0

02In 2021

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

Türkiye3,759,817
Uganda1,529,903
Pakistan1,491,070
Germany1,255,694
Sudan1,103,918

Lowest

Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score. The middle country reads 4,200. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

032020 → 2021

Since 2020

What changed between 2020 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

+3 / −1countries joined / left
158values changed, of 176 in both
109 · 49rose · fell
18unchanged

Rose most

Uganda1,421,133 → 1,529,903+108,770
Türkiye3,652,362 → 3,759,817+107,455
Chad478,649 → 555,782+77,133
France436,055 → 499,914+63,859
Sudan1,040,288 → 1,103,918+63,630

Fell most

Yemen166,906 → 89,467−77,439
Armenia107,910 → 34,728−73,182
Ecuador104,582 → 56,603−47,979
Venezuela68,089 → 39,328−28,761
Tanzania234,645 → 207,101−27,544

+ Comoros

+ Solomon Islands

+ Vanuatu

− Haiti

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

163 distinct values among 179
Values are stored exactly as published. 16 countries share 0. Countries sharing a value share a position too.
Nothing missing
Every one of the 179 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
179 rows · 4.9 KB · UTF-8, opens in Excel
Opens with 11 lines of source notes; the table starts on row 13.
Download refugees-hosted-2021-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=2021&yearTo=2021&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 (2021). Refugee Population by Country of Asylum, 2021 [data set], describing 2021. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/refugees-hosted/2021

0636 held

Other years

‹ The year before
Refugee Population by Country of Asylum, 2020
177 countries
The year after ›
Refugee Population by Country of Asylum, 2022
177 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