According to a report published by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Lebanon ranked second globally in 2022 in terms of refugees per capita, with approximately one refugee for every seven of its citizens.
The UN agency said the number of refugees in Lebanon dropped from 845,900 in 2021 to 818,900 in 2022.
However, such figures are based on the registered number of Syrian refugees, and the Lebanese government requested the agency to halt the registration process in 2015.
The majority of the Syrian refugee population, estimated by the Lebanese government to exceed 2 million, is not registered with the UNHCR. This infers that Lebanon potentially ranks at the top of the list of countries hosting the highest number of refugees per capita.
According to the UN agency’s report, Europe takes first place with a ratio of one refugee for every six citizens. Lebanon is then followed by Curacao (one for every 14 citizens), Jordan (one for every 16) and Turkey (one for every 19).
These figures are published by UNHCR in a report titled “Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2022.”
According to the report, by the end of 2022, the global number of forcibly displaced people reached 108.4 million, which means one person in 74 was affected by factors such as persecution, conflict, human rights violations and events disrupting public order. This represents an increase from 89.3 million in 2021, where the ratio was one in 88 people.
The report classifies the displaced into three categories:
The first category includes internally displaced persons (IDPs), accounting for 62.5 million individuals, or 60.56 percent of the total. The second category consists of refugees, comprising 35.3 million people, or 34.21 percent of the total figure. The report highlights that the majority of refugees come from Syria (6.8 million), Ukraine (5.7 million) and Afghanistan (5.7 million). Syrians, according to the document, accounted for almost 1 in 5 refugees globally, with over three-quarters of them residing in neighboring countries (Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan). The third category pertains to asylum-seekers, with 5.4 million individuals, or 5.23 percent of the overall number of displaced persons.
