refugees: UNHCR Refugee Population Statistics Database

Description

The Refugee Population Statistics Database published by The Office of The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) contains information about forcibly displaced populations spanning more than 70 years of statistical activities. It covers displaced populations such as refugees, asylum-seekers and internally displaced people, including their demographics. Stateless people are also included, most of who have never been displaced. The database also reflects the different types of solutions for displaced populations such as repatriation or resettlement. More information on the data and methodology can be found on the UNHCR Refugee Data Finder https://www.unhcr.org/refugee-statistics/.

Author(s)

Maintainer: Hisham Galal galal@unhcr.org

Other contributors:

• Ahmadou Dicko mail@ahmadoudicko.com [contributor]

• UNHCR [copyright holder]

See Also

Useful links:

• https://populationstatistics.github.io/refugees/

• https://github.com/PopulationStatistics/refugees

• Report bugs at https://github.com/PopulationStatistics/refugees/issues

Asylum Applications

Description

Asylum claims submitted by year and countries of asylum and origin. Claims are submitted by asylum applicants and are applications for international protection.

Usage

asylum_applications

Format

A tibble.

year

The year (e.g. 2020).

coo_name

Country of origin name.

coo

Country of origin UNHCR code.

coo_iso

Country of origin ISO code.

coa_name

Country of asylum name.

coa

Country of asylum UNHCR code.

coa_iso

Country of asylum ISO code.

procedure_type

The procedure type describes the authority with whom the asylum claim was lodged. It can be one of: G – Government, J - Joint, U – UNHCR.

app_type

The application type describes the stage of the procedure. Common values are N (New), R (Repeat) and A (Appeal).

dec_level

The decision level provides more detail of the stage of the procedure. Common values are NA (New applications), RA (repeat/reopened applications) and AR (administrative review).

app_pc

The data type describes whether the data provided reflects cases or persons. The most common situation is for the data on asylum applications lodged to reflect persons, but in certain situations (e.g USA), the data provided by governments is at the level of cases. A case can contain information on one or more persons.

applied

The total number of asylum claims for the given dataset.

Details

See the notes on the data structure in the methodology pages for more details.

Source

UNHCR Refugee Data Finder.

Examples

asylum_applications

Asylum Decisions

Description

Decisions taken on asylum claims by year and countries of asylum and origin. Asylum claims are applications for international protection and decisions on asylum claims can be positive, negative or otherwise closed.

Usage

asylum_decisions

Format

A tibble.

year

The year (e.g. 2020).

coo_name

Country of origin name.

coo

Country of origin UNHCR code.

coo_iso

Country of origin ISO code.

coa_name

Country of asylum name.

coa

Country of asylum UNHCR code.

coa_iso

Country of asylum ISO code.

procedure_type

The procedure type describes the authority with whom the asylum claim was lodged. It can be one of: G – Government, J - Joint, U – UNHCR.

dec_level

The decision level provides more detail of the stage of the procedure. Common values are NA (New applications), RA (repeat/reopened applications) and AR (administrative review).

dec_pc

The data type describes whether the data provided reflects cases or persons. The most common situation is for the data on asylum applications lodged to reflect persons, but in certain situations (e.g USA), the data provided by governments is at the level of cases. A case can contain information on one or more persons.

dec_recognized

The number of asylum applicants recognised as refugees under UNHCR’s mandate.

dec_other

The number of asylum applicants recognised as refugees under other forms of complementary protection.

dec_rejected

The number of asylum applicants whose asylum claims have been rejected.

dec_closed

The number of asylum applicants whose asylum claims have been otherwise closed.

dec_total

The total number of asylum applicants for which a decision on their asylum claim has been made in the given reference period.

Details

See the notes on the data structure in the methodology pages for more details.

Source

UNHCR Refugee Data Finder.

Examples

asylum_decisions

Countries

Description

Country codes, names, UN major areas and UNHCR regional bureaux/operations.

Usage

countries

Format

A tibble.

iso_code

ISO3 Country code.

unhcr_code

UNHCR Country code.

name

UNSD Name.

unhcr_region

UNHCR Region name.

unsd_region

UNSD Region name.

unsd_subregion

UNSD Sub-region name.

unsd_imregion

SDG Region name.

sdg_region

SDG Region name.

Source

UNHCR Refugee Data Finder.

Examples

countries

Demographics

Description

Demographic and sub-national data, where such disaggregation is available. UNHCR collects this information for all population types, as well as two durable solutions (returned IDPs and refugees). Demographics are also available for IDMC and UNRWA datasets.

Usage

demographics

Format

A tibble.

year

The year (e.g. 2020).

coo_name

Country of origin name.

coo

Country of origin UNHCR code.

coo_iso

Country of origin ISO code.

coa_name

Country of asylum name.

coa

Country of asylum UNHCR code.

coa_iso

Country of asylum ISO code.

pop_type

The three character code specifying the population type (e.g. REF for refugees, ASY for asylum-seekers etc).

location

The textual description of the location.

loc_type

An indication of whether the location is urban or rural. An urban location is classified as a settlement with more than 5,000 inhabitants. It can be one of the following values: C – Camp. Note that C was discontinued after 2010, at which point the accommodation type became available, U – Urban, R – Rural, V - Various/unknown

acc_type

Accommodation Type became available in 2010 but is only populated from 2012. The code represents one of: I - Individual accommodation, S - Self-settled camp, P - Planned/managed camp, C - Collective centre, R - Reception/transit camp, U - Undefined

f_0_4

The number of female children aged 0 to 4 inclusive.

f_5_11

The number of female children aged 5 to 11 inclusive.

f_12_17

The number of female children aged 12 to 17 inclusive.

f_18_59

The number of female adults aged 18 to 59 inclusive.

f_60

The number of female adults aged 60 or more.

f_other

The number of females for whom age disaggregation is unavailable.

f_total

The total number of females (where disaggregation by sex is available).

m_0_4

The number of male children aged 0 to 4 inclusive.

m_5_11

The number of male children aged 5 to 11 inclusive.

m_12_17

The number of male children aged 12 to 17 inclusive.

m_18_59

The number of male adults aged 18 to 59 inclusive.

m_60

The number of male adults aged 60 or more.

m_other

The number of males for whom age disaggregation is unavailable.

m_total

The total number of males (where disaggregation by sex is available).

total

The total number of persons.

Details

See the notes on the data structure in the methodology pages for more details.

Source

UNHCR Refugee Data Finder.

Examples

demographics

Forced displacement flow dataset

Description

UNHCR has published a new dataset recording the number of people forced to flee during each of the years since 1962. This dataset presents the forced displacement flows.

Usage

flows

Format

A tibble.

year

The year (e.g. 2020).

coo_name

Country of origin name.

coo

Country of origin UNHCR code.

coo_iso

Country of origin ISO code.

coa_name

Country of asylum name.

coa

Country of asylum UNHCR code.

coa_iso

Country of asylum ISO code.

refugees

Refugee Arrivals: includes prima facie (group recognition) refugees and those who have received temporary protection. The first available data for this group is for 1962. People in refugee-like situations are also included from 2007.

asylum_seekers

New Asylum Applications: are new asylum applications registered during each year. Repeat and appeal applications have been excluded. The first year that published data for this population group became available is 1970 and only for a limited number of high-income countries, with data from more countries available from 2000.

returned_refugees

Refugees who have returned home within the previous year.

oip

Other people in need of international protection: includes just the new arrivals of this population group, first reported in 2018.

Details

See the notes on the curation process in the Data Insights for more details.

Source

UNHCR Refugee Data Finder.

Examples

flows

IDMC Data

Description

Data on Internally displaced persons due to conflict and violence that is produced by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.

Usage

idmc

Format

A tibble.

year

The year (e.g. 2020).

coo_name

Country of origin name.

coo

Country of origin UNHCR code.

coo_iso

Country of origin ISO code.

coa_name

Country of asylum name.

coa

Country of asylum UNHCR code.

coa_iso

Country of asylum ISO code.

total

The total number of internally displaced persons due to conflict and violence.

Details

See the notes on the data structure in the methodology pages for more details.

Source

UNHCR Refugee Data Finder.

Examples

idmc

Population figures

Description

UNHCR data on displacement at the end of the year.

Usage

population

Format

A tibble.

year

The year (e.g. 2020).

coo_name

Country of origin name.

coo

Country of origin UNHCR code.

coo_iso

Country of origin ISO code.

coa_name

Country of asylum name.

coa

Country of asylum UNHCR code.

coa_iso

Country of asylum ISO code.

refugees

The number of refugees.

asylum_seekers

The number of asylum-seekers.

returned_refugees

The number of returned refugees.

idps

The number of internally displaced persons.

returned_idps

The number of returned internally displaced persons.

stateless

The number of stateless persons.

ooc

The number of others of concern to UNHCR.

oip

The number of other people in need of international protection.

hst

The number of host community members.

Details

See the notes on the data structure in the methodology pages for more details.

Source

UNHCR Refugee Data Finder.

Examples

population

Solutions

Description

Data on solutions record those refugees and IDPs that have availed a durable solution.

Usage

solutions

Format

A tibble.

year

The year (e.g. 2020).

coo_name

Country of origin name.

coo

Country of origin UNHCR code.

coo_iso

Country of origin ISO code.

coa_name

Country of asylum name.

coa

Country of asylum UNHCR code.

coa_iso

Country of asylum ISO code.

returned_refugees

The number of refugee returnees.

resettlement

The number of resettlement arrivals.

naturalisation

The number of refugees that have naturalised.

returned_idps

The number of IDP returnees.

Details

See the notes on the data structure in the methodology pages for more details.

Source

UNHCR Refugee Data Finder.

Examples

solutions

UNRWA data

Description

Data on Palestine refugees registered under UNRWA’s mandate.

Usage

unrwa

Format

A tibble.

year

The year (e.g. 2020).

coo_name

Country of origin name.

coo

Country of origin UNHCR code.

coo_iso

Country of origin ISO code.

coa_name

Country of asylum name.

coa

Country of asylum UNHCR code.

coa_iso

Country of asylum ISO code.

total

The total number of Palestine refugees registered under UNRWA’s mandate.

Details

See the notes on the data structure in the methodology pages for more details.

Source

UNHCR Refugee Data Finder.

Examples

unrwa