Internally Displaced Persons (IDP), Stateless Persons, and Other UNHCR Population of Concern, 2000-12

UNHCR's Statistical Online Population Database is a work in progress and is updated from time to time; as a result, data in this tool might not always match UNHCR reports. The 2012 data should be considered provisional. For more information on sources, methods, and data considerations in the UNHCR Online Population Database, visit: www.unhcr.org/45c06c662.html.

UNHCR's populations of concern include refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons (IDPs) who are protected/assisted by UNHCR, stateless persons, and returnees (returned refugees and IDPs). Returned refugees are former refugees who have returned to their country of origin spontaneously or with assistance but are yet to be fully integrated. IDPs are people who have been forced to leave their homes to escape armed conflict, violence, violations of human rights, or natural disasters, and who have not crossed an international border. (For the purposes of UNHCR's statistics, this population includes only conflict-generated IDPs to whom UNHCR extends protection and/or assistance; since 2007 the IDP population category also includes people in IDP-like situations). Returned IDPs are IDPs who have returned to their place of origin or habitual residence. Stateless persons are individuals who are not considered as nationals by any State under the operation of its law. Others of concern are individuals who do not necessarily fall directly into any of the groups above, but to whom UNHCR extends its protection and/or assistance services, based on humanitarian or other special grounds. This category also included stateless persons until 2003 and people in refugee-like and IDP-like situations until 2007.  For detailed definitions, visit the UNHCR Statistical Online Population Database.