VIEWING
WORLD REFUGEES
POPULATION
REFUGEES / POPULATION

About

In every corner of the earth ordinary people are forced to leave their homes due to conflict and persecution. Often they never return.

In 2016, nearly 66 million people experienced this fate – one of every 113 people on the planet. When displaced people cross international borders, they are called refugees. In 2016, the number of refugees reached an all-time high of 22 million people. 17 million of them are under the protection of the UNHCR - The UN Refugee Agency.

The Refugee Project looks beyond the crises that are currently making headlines and allows viewers to explore all refugee migrations around the world over the last half-century. As the interactive map courses through the years, it reveals the growing occurrences of crises and their country of origin along with data revealing the scale of each country’s exodus. Hovering over each country reveals where local refugees sought asylum in exact figures for any given year. UN refugee data is complemented by 100 contextual narrative stories detailing the events that triggered the major refugee crises of the last four decades. The result is a visualization that pairs history with layers upon layers of data, creating a powerful narrative of refugee migration.

About the Data

Under international law, the United Nations is responsible for protecting asylum seekers around the world. Through the offices of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and a separate agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), the UN has been tracking displaced people since 1975 as part of its larger task of safeguarding their lives and rights. The UNHCR's mandate is to try to assist all stateless and displaced people, not just "refugees" as defined under international law. The Refugee Project is limited to registered refugees under the protection of the UNHCR. In order to qualify for that protection, an individual must be outside the boundaries of his or her country of nationality, "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion."

The Refugee Project does not consider the large number of economic migrants and other undocumented populations, nor does it show the millions of internally displaced persons in troubled countries around the world. As a result, it is an image almost exclusively of social and political crises, rather than of natural disasters or economic turmoil (though these factors are often interrelated).

Recognition

The Refugee Project was selected for MoMA’s Design and Violence exhibition, where it was written about by the UNHCR’s High Comissioner, António Guterres. It was selected for the Design Museum (London) Designs of the Year 2015 Exhibition. The piece was featured in the New Americans exhibition at the Annenberg Photospace in Los Angeles and in an exhibition called Information+ at Concourse Gallery in Vancouver. Stamen Design featured it as part of the Mapmaker Manifesto installation at the 2014 Istanbul Design Biennial. It was published across the globe in Le Monde, El Pais, Corriere della Sera, designboom, Domus and The Atlantic, who called it “an example of how graphic designers are turning their attention to framing data that stimulates action.” The project was awarded a Gold Medal for Interactive at the 2014 Information is Beautiful Awards and a Silver Medal at the prestigious Malofiej 22 Infographic Awards. The Refugee Project has accrued over 5 million page views since launching in January 2014, and has been shared on Twitter to millions of viewers by global humanitarian organizations like UNHCR, Human Rights Watch, Oxfam International, UN Global Pulse and Amnesty International.

Credits

Concept, Design & Production:
Hyperakt (Deroy Peraza, Eric Fensterheim, Josh Smith & Ambika Roos) & Ekene Ijeoma
Desktop Development:
Ekene Ijeoma
Mobile Development:
Oak
Copywriting and research:
Ted Cava
Copy Editing:
Jenna Shapiro & Ambika Roos
Data Sources:
UNHCR Refugee Data, UN Population Data

How It Works

Compare refugee population visually by country

The size of the circle around each country indicates how many of that country’s citizens are living abroad as refugees.

The circles expand when a country experiences war, turmoil, famine, or repression, and people flee. The circles shrink when the country stabilizes or experiences political change and refugees return home; or, less often, when they are given legal residency in their new homes, or in third countries.

View refugees by volume or by percent of population

The view toggle switch in the sidebar allows you to choose whether you want to visualize the total number of refugees living abroad for a given country in a given year or whether you want to visualize the country’s refugee population as a percentage of the country’s total population for the given year. The percentage view highlights the relative impact of instability on smaller nations.

Explore where each country’s refugees have found asylum

The lines radiating from each refugee-producing country connect it to all the foreign countries where its refugee nationals reside in that year.

Where a refugee seeks asylum is a complex decision, based on geography, the wealth of the individual refugee, political considerations in nearby countries and the policies of the UN.

Analyze when countries had the highest refugee volumes

The red bar along the bottom of the window illustrates a heatmap of refugee volumes over time for the entire world or for individual countries.

This number rises and falls over time in response to global trends and particularly large regional crises.

Read about events that led to refugee crises

The headline stories about many of the most important refugee-producing nations give the context behind each refugee crisis- what people are running from, and why.

Refugees don’t come out of a vacuum. Each wave of asylum seekers reflects a wave of repression, violence or chaos in their home countries.

The years for which there are headlines are turning points in each country's recent history, not necessarily the moments that saw significant numbers of refugees flee that country.

Questions & Comments

The Refugee Project is an experimental learning and exploration tool. We would love to hear questions and comments so we can continue improving it. If you’re interested in publishing a piece about the project or are interested in using the tool in educational contexts, please reach out to: hello at therefugeeproject dot org.

Sources & Notes

Afghanistan:
http://www.nps.edu/programs/ccs/docs/pubs/understanding%20the%20taliban%20and%20insurgency%20in%20afghanistan.pdf
http://www.mepc.org/articles-commentary/commentary/lessons-soviet-withdrawal-afghanistan
http://www.nonel.pu.ru/erdferkel/khalidi.pdf
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/aftoc.html#af0106
Taliban, by Ahmed Rashid, 2000
Angola:
http://users.dickinson.edu/~ballj/documents/HistoryCompass.pdf
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13037271
http://www.start.umd.edu/start/data_collections/tops terrorist_organization_profile.asp?id=3509
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/aotoc.html
Another Day of Life, by Ryszard Kapuściński, 1976
Azerbaijan:
http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1065626.html
http://news.amnesty.org.au/news/comments/hundreds_of_thousands_of_people_displaced/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18270325
http://www.unhcr.org/4bd7edbd9.html
Bhutan:
http://www.hrw.org/node/10953/
http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/countries-crossroads/2005/bhutan
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12641778
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/bttoc.html
Bosnia:
http://blogs.shu.edu/diplomacy/files/archives/07%2520Franz_Layout%25201.pdf
http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/europe/balkans/bosnia-herzegovina/023-going-nowhere-fast-refugees-and-internally-displaced-persons-in-bosnia-and-herzegovina.aspx
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/balkans/timeline.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17617775
Burundi:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13087604
http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/mar/chronology.asp?groupId=51601
http://www.massviolence.org/The-Burundi-Killings-of-1972?artpage=2-7
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/14/world/rewriting-burundi-s-brutal-past.html
Cambodia:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13006828
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F10916FC3959107788DDA90A94D9405B8084F1D3
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2009/feb/16/cambodia-khmer-rouge
The Gate, by François Bizot, 2000
Central African Republic:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20798007
http://www.hrw.org/node/10680/section/3
http://thinkafricapress.com/central-african-republic/fanning-flames-war-car-seleka
http://www.unhcr.org/522f2c8a9.html
Colombia:
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home/opendocPDFViewer.html?docid=3e71f2014&query=colombian%20refugees
http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/latin-america/colombia/colombias-elusive-quest-for-peace.pdf
http://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/un-pais-huye/55666-3
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1212827.stm
Croatia:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Breakup_of_Yugoslavia.gif
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/serbs-commemorate-operation-storm
http://www.peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/Croatia.pdf
http://www.cla.purdue.edu/history/facstaff/Ingrao/si/Team_7_Full_Text_Report.pdf
Democratic Republic of Congo:
http://www.irinnews.org/printreport.aspx?reportid=59125
http://www.unhcr.org/42552ef34.html
http://partners.nytimes.com/library/world/090897obit-mobutu.html
http://www.hrw.org/news/2009/08/20/dr-congo-chronology-key-events#_Independence
http://ks29982.kimsufi.com/passerelle/film-ba.php?f=26&o=d&
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2009/0122/p06s01-woaf.html
King Leopold's Ghost, by Adam Hochschild, 1998 Africa's World War, Gérard Prunier, 2009
El Salvador:
http://www.watsoninstitute.org/pub/CallStedmanChap14.pdf
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/world/americas/12salvador.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.pbs.org/itvs/enemiesofwar/timeline.html
http://www.nuso.org/upload/articulos/3791_1.pdf
Equatorial Guinea:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/episodes/once-upon-a-coup/history of-equatorial-guinea/5475/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1101-2004Sep6.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3610187/If-you-think-this-ones-bad-you-should-have-seen-his-uncle.html
http://elpais.com/diario/1979/09/30/internacional/307490404_850215.html
Eritrea:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13349395
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/jun/20/eritrea-refugees-misghina
http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2013/eritrea-0
http://www.hrw.org/node/82280/section/3
Ethiopia:
http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/africa/horn-of-africa/ethiopia-eritrea.aspx
http://www.hrw.org/legacy/english/docs/1999/11/29/ethiop5495.htm
http://www.scribd.com/doc/7258548/Tareke-Ethiopia-Somalia-War-of-1977
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8535189.stm
The Emperor, by Ryszard Kapuściński, 1978
Guinea:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7647962.stm
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2007/guinea0407/4.htm#_ftn5
http://web.mit.edu/cascon/cases/case_gpg.html
http://csis.org/files/publication/anotes_0686.pdf
Iraq:
http://www.law.depaul.edu/centers_institutes/ihrli/pdf/ihp1.pdf
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/03/AR2007020301604.html
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/ops/war/docs/3203/
http://www.cemml.colostate.edu/cultural/09476/iraq02-01enl.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/14/world/middleeast/united-states-leaving-sunni-awakening-comrades-in-iraq-in-limbo.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Liberia:
http://ictj.org/sites/default/files/ICTJ-DDR-Liberia-CaseStudy-2009-English.pdf
http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/unmil/background.shtml
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/africa/liberia/index.html
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14982739
Mali:
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2013/08/201381193029529508.html
http://thinkafricapress.com/mali/editors-q-whats-deal-mali
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/27/us-mali-election-refugees-idUSBRE96Q07720130727
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-24329810
Mozambique:
http://pi.library.yorku.ca/ojs/index.php/refuge/article/view/21751/20421
http://www.academia.edu/171262/War_peace_and_development_in_Mozambique_A_critical_assessment
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13890720
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/07/23/uk-mozambique-politics-insight-idUKBRE96M0AT20130723
Myanmar:
http://fromburmatonewyork.com
http://www.stimson.org/programs/myanmar-map/#Pa-O
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/myanmar.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22023830
Burmese Days, by George Orwell, 1934
https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/02/06/burma-security-forces-raped-rohingya-women-girls
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/12/myanmar-security-forces-target-rohingya-viscious-scorched-earth-campaign/
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38168917
http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/04/13/523418664/ngo-myanmar-forces-set-out-to-systematically-rape-rohingya-women-and-girls
Namibia:
http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/past/untagFT.htm
http://web.mit.edu/cascon/cases/case_nam.html
http://www.ucdp.uu.se/gpdatabase/gpcountry.php?id=113&value=
South Africa in Namibia: the Botha Strategy, by Robert Jaster, 1985
Nicaragua:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8157762.stm
http://www.brown.edu/Research/Understanding_the_Iran_Contra_Affair/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1999/jul/19/duncancampbell?INTCMP=SRCH
http://articles.latimes.com/1990-04-02/news/mn-444_1_honduras-camps
Palestine:
http://www.unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=86
http://www.unrwa.org/userfiles/201006109359.pdf
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=44794#Uht9smTuW3M
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14630174
Philippines:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/world/asia/12phils.html?ref=moroislamicliberationfront
http://www.cfr.org/philippines/abu-sayyaf-group-philippines-islamist-separatists/p9235
http://www.irinnews.org/report/98783/mindanao-crisis-deepens-as-displacement-tops-100-000
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11925641
Russia:
http://www.soviethistory.org/index.php?page=subject&SubjectID=1985perestroika&Year=
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/04/there-are-almost-no-chechens-in-the-united-states-heres-why/275195/
Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire, by David Remnick, 1993
Rwanda:
http://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/rwanda/education/rwandagenocide.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13431486
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/09/bystanders-to-genocide/304571/?single_page=true
http://www.franksmyth.com/wp-content/uploads/1994/06/The-Horror.pdf
Sierra Leone:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/galleries/sierra_leone/front.htm
http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/mar/assessment.asp?groupId=45104
http://www.unhcr.org/4890898c4.html
http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/past/unamsil/background.html
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1999/crisis-e.htm
Somalia:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-mohamed-said-barre-1566452.html
http://refugeesinternational.org/where-we-work/africa/somalia
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=45371#.UhUGRGTuW3M
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=45371#.UhUGRGTuW3M
Sri Lanka:
http://www.cfr.org/terrorist-organizations-and-networks/sri-lankan-conflict/p11407#p6
http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/asia/south-asia/sri-lanka.aspx
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/19/world/a-war-within-the-sri-lankan-war.html?src=pm
http://www.unhcr.ie/world-refugee-day/sri-lanka-lenas-dilemma
Sudan:
http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/pdf/darfur_040707.pdf
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/sdtoc.html#sd0033
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14095300
http://www.cfr.org/sudan/africa-darfur-crisis/p7714
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2004/jul/25/internationalaidanddevelopment
South Sudan:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/od.html
http://www.chronicle.co.zw/no-tribal-fiefdoms-in-south-sudan/l
http://www.newvision.co.ug/new_vision/news/1455746/gen-swaka-explains-source-sudan-conflict-appeals-museveni?
http://www.unhcr.org/uk/news/press/2017/5/590c7cb64/million-children-fled-escalating-violence-south-sudan.html
Suriname:
http://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/18/world/surinam-war-is-devastating-a-bush-society.html?src=pm
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/14/world/to-suriname-refugees-truce-means-betrayal.html
http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/EthnoAtlas/Hmar/Cult_dir/Culture.7834
http://www.cidh.oas.org/countryrep/Suriname85eng/TOC.htm
Syria:
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2017/04/29/factions-syrian-civil-war/
http://syriancivilwarmap.com/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/24/magazine/aleppo-after-the-fall.html?_r=0
http://syriadirect.org/news/syria-situation-report-june-1-june-8-2017/
Timor Leste:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/447639.stm#map
http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/past/etimor/UntaetB.htm
http://www.cavr-timorleste.org/en/index.htm
http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/wtimor/
Uganda:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR59/007/1978/en/f6e31e97-2fa5-42e8-950d-a99854724529/afr590071978en.pdf
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/17/world/idi-amin-murderous-and-erratic-ruler-of-uganda-in-the-70-s-dies-in-exile.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
http://memory.loc.gov/frd/cs/ugtoc.html#ug0021
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14112446
Vietnam:
https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/specials/saigon/boatpeople.html
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/vntoc.html#vn0131
http://www.library.ubc.ca/asian/FinalAsian/Vietnam/Thumb/Vietnam.html
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/32979/barry-wain/the-indochina-refugee-crisis
Western Sahara:
http://www.nrc.no/arch/_img/9258989.pdf
http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/Middle%20East%20North%20Africa/North%20Africa/ Western%20Sahara/66_western_sahara___out_of_the_impasse.pdf
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2008/12/19/human-rights-western-sahara-and-tindouf-refugee-camps
http://minurso.unmissions.org/Default.aspx?tabid=9532&language=en-U
Yemen:
http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam031/00029266.pdf
http://www.wrmea.org/wrmea-archives/156-washington-report-archives-1994-1999/july-august-1994/7557-north-and-south-yemen-lead-up-to-the-break-up.html
http://www.cs.nmsu.edu/~fmohamed/ancient-ye.html
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2028740,00.html
Zimbabwe:
http://selousscouts.tripod.com/rhodesian%20army%20coin%2072_79%20part2.htm
http://www.rhodesia.nl/Rhodesia%20Tactical%20Victory.pdf
http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/countries/africa/zimbabwe
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jul/01/zimbabwe.southafrica