List of largest refugee crises

The list below includes data for refugee crises with at least 1 million refugees, not including internally displaced persons (IDP). For events for which estimates vary, the geometric mean of the lowest and highest estimates is calculated to rank the events.

Rows highlighted in blue indicate ongoing events.

Event	Refugees estimate	Origin	From	Until	Duration	Ref.
World War II	60.0 million	Europe	1939	1945	6 years	[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Partition of India	20.0 million	Indian subcontinent	1947	1948	1 year	[7] [8]
World War I	15.0 million	Europe	1914	1918	4 years	[9] [10] [11]
Armenian genocide	1.0 million	Ottoman Empire	1915	1923	8 years	[12] [13] [14] [15] [16]
Russian invasion of Ukraine	9.2 million [note 1]	Europe	2022	Present	3 years, 5 months	[17] [18] [19] [20]
Bangladeshi Liberation War	9.0 million	Indian subcontinent	1971	1971	8 months	[21]
Crisis in Venezuela	8.9 million	Venezuela	2014	Present	11 years	[22]
Syrian Civil War	6.7 million	Syria	2011	Present	14 years	[23]
Soviet–Afghan War	6.2 million	Afghanistan	1978	1989	11 years	[24]
Yemeni Civil War	4.5 million	Yemen	2015	Present	10 years	[25]
Sudanese civil war (2023–)	3.5 million	Sudan	2023	Present	2 years, 4 months	[26]
Vietnam War	3.0 million	Mainland Southeast Asia	1975	2000	25 years	[27]
War in Afghanistan	2.6–2.7 million	Afghanistan	2001	2021	20 years	[28] [29]
Yugoslav Wars	2.4 million	Yugoslavia	1991	2001	10 years	[30]
Korean War	1.0–5.0 million	Korea	1950	1953	3 years	[31] [32]
Iraq War	2.2 million	Iraq	2003	2011	8 years	[33]
Rwandan Genocide	2.1 million	Rwanda	1994	1996	2 years	[34]
Iraqi Uprisings	1.8 million	Iraq	1991	1991	8 months	[27]
Wars in the Caucasus	1.5–2 million	Caucasus	1988	1996	8 years	[35] [36]
Mozambican Civil War	1.7 million	Mozambique	1977	1992	15 years	[27]
Arab-Israeli Conflict	1.6 million (700,000 Palestinians est. 900,000 Jews est.)	Palestine (region)	1947	Present	77 years	[37]
South Sudanese Civil War	1.5 million	South Sudan	2011	2020	9 years	[38]
Rohingya Genocide	1.3 million	Myanmar	2016	Present	9 years	[39]
Algerian War	1.0 million	Algeria	1954	1962	8 years	[27]
Irish Great Famine	1.0 million	Ireland	1845	1849	4 years	[40]
First Libyan Civil War	1.0 million	Libya	2011	2011	8 months	[41]
Somali Civil War	1.0 million	Somalia	1991	Present	34 years	[42]

Notes

1. Includes 8.2 million Ukrainian refugees recorded in Europe (including countries partially in Europe); 0.2 million people fleeing Russia after the invasion but before the announcement of mobilization; 0.8 million people fleeing Russia after the beginning of Russian mobilization in September 2022. See also Russian emigration during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

See also

• List of sovereign states by refugee population

References

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12. Cheterian, Vicken (2015). Open wounds: Armenians, Turks and a century of genocide. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 103-104. ISBN   978-0-19-026350-8. The newly independent Republic of Armenia found itself in a similarly desperate situation. Nearly half of its population of 720,000 people were refugees. During the war 295,000 Armenians had left the Ottoman Empire and entered lands controlled by Russia, the vast majority of whom became refugees in the Republic of Armenia, which faced constant military pressure from the west, first from the Ottoman and later the Kemalist armies.
13. Migliorino, Nicola (2008). (Re)Constructing Armenia in Lebanon and Syria: Ethno-Cultural Diversity and the State in the Aftermath of a Refugee Crisis. Berghahn Books. p. 32. ISBN   978-1-84545-352-7.

    Armenian refugees in the countries of the Middle East, 1925

    Country	Population
    Syria	100,000
    Lebanon	50,000
    Palestine & Jordan	10,000
    Egypt	40,000
    Iraq	25,000
    Iran	50,000
    Total	275,000

14. NARA 867.4016/816. From James W. Gerard to Secretary of State. November 1922. Approximate number of Armenians in the World. "Of the total indicated below, 817,873 are refugees from Turkey."
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