Burkina Faso's refugees abroad grew thirtyfold in six years
Refugees from Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger living abroad under UNHCR's mandate, thousands, 2015–2025.
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- 2. Japan's foreign residents have doubled since 2012, passing 4 million
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- 12. Nigeria became the third-biggest sender of students abroad
- 13. Pakistanis abroad now send home more than Pakistan exports
- 14. More Syrian refugees returned in 2025 than in 2015–2024 combined
- 15. Burkina Faso's refugees abroad grew thirtyfold in six years
Refugees from Burkina Faso abroad in 2025, up from 11.7k in 2019: about 30 times as many.
Burkina Faso's place among the countries refugees come from, 2019 to 2025; it more than doubled again in 2025.
Refugees from Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger combined in 2025, more than five times the 179k of 2019.
the numbers & method
| Year | Burkina Faso (k) | Mali (k) | Niger (k) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 2 | 154 | 1 |
| 2016 | 2 | 156 | 1 |
| 2017 | 3 | 150 | 1 |
| 2018 | 11 | 158 | 3 |
| 2019 | 12 | 165 | 3 |
| 2020 | 16 | 165 | 19 |
| 2021 | 20 | 183 | 22 |
| 2022 | 30 | 226 | 22 |
| 2023 | 55 | 249 | 25 |
| 2024 | 150 | 354 | 44 |
| 2025 | 351 | 520 | 86 |
Claim types Fact
UNHCR Refugee Data Finder, refugees under UNHCR's mandate by country of origin, end-year figures, the latest year as UNHCR currently reports it (data version 8de5e16e40), read from the UNHCR population API (api.unhcr.org) via the progrss vault (GUIDELINES §4.11). Burkina Faso: 2015 2,147; 2016 2,352; 2017 2,694; 2018 11,447; 2019 11,733; 2020 15,694; 2021 20,209; 2022 29,914; 2023 54,869; 2024 150,081; 2025 351,209. Mali: 2015 154,202; 2019 164,466; 2023 249,046; 2024 354,075; 2025 519,738. Niger: 2015 1,383; 2019 3,063; 2023 24,794; 2024 44,119; 2025 85,591. 351,209 ÷ 11,733 = 29.9 (progrss calculation). Sahel total (Burkina Faso + Mali + Niger): 179,262 in 2019, 956,538 in 2025 (progrss calculation). Ranks are among the 193 (2019) and 199 (2025) origins with a UNHCR count; in 2025 Burkina Faso ranked 14th, behind Ukraine, Syria, Sudan, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar, DR Congo, Somalia, Central African Republic, Eritrea, Mali, Nigeria and Venezuela. Refugees only: asylum-seekers and people displaced inside their own country are not counted (UNHCR counts many more internally displaced Burkinabè). The jump between 2017 and 2018 comes before the 2019 base year used in the title. Licence: UNHCR data, CC BY 4.0.
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