17 countries hold 100,000+ pending asylum claims, up from 5
Countries hosting 100,000+ asylum-seekers (claims pending), UNHCR, end-2015 vs end-2025, 166 countries.
- 1. One in ten in Japan will be foreign by 2070
- 2. Japan's foreign residents have doubled since 2012, passing 4 million
- 3. Jakarta, not Tokyo, is the world's largest city
- 4. Two in three newly licensed UK doctors qualified abroad
- 5. Iran dropped from top refugee host to fifth in 2025
- 6. Egypt has more asylum seekers than Germany, Spain and Italy
- 7. Chad rose from 15th to 6th among refugee hosts
- 8. Türkiye overtook France in hosting foreign students
- 9. Uzbekistan's university enrolment rose from 8% to 57%
- 10. Japan rose from ninth to second as Vietnamese emigrants' home
- 11. South Korea turned from student sender into student host
- 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
- 16. Nearly half of Mongolia now lives in its capital
- 17. 13 countries and Hong Kong became student hosts, not senders
- 18. Tijuana added almost as many domestic passengers as Mexico City
- 19. Most of East Asia's big cities lost people since 2020
- 20. 17 countries hold 100,000+ pending asylum claims, up from 5
- 21. Most Bangladeshi migrants now live in the Gulf, not India
- 22. The Gulf now hosts a quarter of Nepalis abroad
- 23. Fewer Mexicans live abroad, yet Mexico receives far more money
- 24. No country added more emigrants since 2015 than Venezuela
Countries hosting at least 100,000 asylum-seekers, end-2015 vs end-2025. 14 crossed the line; South Africa and Sweden fell below it.
New countries above the line are in Africa, Latin America or Asia, from Mexico (1,344 → 173,532) to DR Congo (978 → 100,112).
People waiting on asylum claims in the same 166 countries; the US holds 3.7 million of them.
the numbers & method
| Country | Value |
|---|---|
| USA | 3,718,945 |
| EGY | 878,268 |
| PER | 556,770 |
| CAN | 314,475 |
| DEU | 297,503 |
| ESP | 248,715 |
| ITA | 234,144 |
| KEN | 218,646 |
| CRI | 178,212 |
| MEX | 173,532 |
| GBR | 144,747 |
| BRA | 119,651 |
| PAK | 119,502 |
| ETH | 112,987 |
| LBY | 105,954 |
| TUR | 102,497 |
| COD | 100,112 |
| FRA | 85,227 |
| AUS | 82,925 |
| ZAF | 82,358 |
| MYS | 63,011 |
| BEL | 58,725 |
| SDN | 50,147 |
| NER | 50,004 |
| NLD | 49,662 |
| TZA | 43,262 |
| KOR | 39,106 |
| UGA | 35,249 |
| IRL | 33,728 |
| GRC | 31,928 |
| AGO | 30,261 |
| ISR | 29,682 |
| URY | 27,288 |
| SOM | 25,702 |
| MWI | 25,251 |
| TTO | 23,369 |
| IRQ | 23,366 |
| CYP | 23,162 |
| JPN | 22,647 |
| AUT | 22,014 |
| MOZ | 18,972 |
| CMR | 18,553 |
| NGA | 18,192 |
| COL | 17,421 |
| CHE | 17,039 |
| RWA | 15,251 |
| IND | 15,075 |
| MAR | 15,033 |
| YEM | 14,642 |
| POL | 13,848 |
| ZMB | 12,906 |
| BEN | 11,947 |
| DJI | 10,141 |
| CHL | 9,561 |
| ZWE | 9,495 |
| TCD | 9,371 |
| PRT | 8,595 |
| ECU | 8,571 |
| CAF | 8,454 |
| CIV | 8,177 |
| COG | 8,109 |
| JOR | 8,068 |
| LBN | 7,617 |
| MRT | 7,378 |
| NOR | 6,280 |
| ARE | 6,257 |
| TUN | 5,523 |
| IDN | 4,697 |
| SWE | 4,661 |
| NZL | 4,584 |
| TGO | 4,282 |
| SYR | 4,144 |
| PAN | 4,129 |
| GTM | 4,088 |
| ARG | 3,941 |
| SAU | 3,907 |
| DZA | 3,690 |
| SWZ | 3,511 |
| SSD | 3,246 |
| TJK | 3,238 |
| PNG | 3,121 |
| LUX | 3,050 |
| THA | 2,880 |
| DNK | 2,738 |
| KGZ | 1,981 |
| BFA | 1,957 |
| FIN | 1,879 |
| BLZ | 1,836 |
| PRY | 1,659 |
| VEN | 1,577 |
| SEN | 1,538 |
| BLR | 1,470 |
| BDI | 1,466 |
| MLT | 1,390 |
| NAM | 1,326 |
| BGR | 1,317 |
| MDG | 1,279 |
| DOM | 1,029 |
| ARM | 998 |
| CZE | 993 |
| RUS | 976 |
| PHL | 942 |
| LBR | 725 |
| SVN | 722 |
| ISL | 660 |
| KWT | 611 |
| MDA | 594 |
| GMB | 509 |
| LVA | 487 |
| CHN | 482 |
| GHA | 475 |
| UKR | 443 |
| HND | 441 |
| HRV | 434 |
| OMN | 414 |
| AFG | 382 |
| SLV | 328 |
| MLI | 322 |
| EST | 321 |
| ROU | 316 |
| NPL | 302 |
| GEO | 288 |
| LKA | 271 |
| LSO | 202 |
| AZE | 199 |
| MNE | 175 |
| GIN | 172 |
| BIH | 164 |
| KAZ | 163 |
| LTU | 156 |
| QAT | 153 |
| SXM | 141 |
| SRB | 134 |
| BHR | 122 |
| NRU | 92 |
| GAB | 86 |
| BGD | 67 |
| HUN | 42 |
| CUB | 40 |
| MKD | 38 |
| LIE | 37 |
| FJI | 31 |
| GNB | 30 |
| GUY | 29 |
| BWA | 21 |
| SVK | 16 |
| CYM | 15 |
| MNG | 15 |
| ALB | 11 |
| KHM | 5 |
| TKM | 0 |
| BHS | 0 |
| MMR | 0 |
| SLE | 0 |
| ERI | 0 |
| CUW | 0 |
| IRN | 0 |
| UZB | 0 |
| CPV | 0 |
| VNM | 0 |
| HTI | 0 |
| HKG | 0 |
| BOL | 0 |
| BRN | 0 |
| TCA | 0 |
| MCO | 0 |
Claim types Fact
UNHCR Refugee Data Finder (population statistics), asylum-seekers by country of asylum, end-year stocks for 2015 and 2025; read from the UNHCR download via the progrss vault (vault rule GUIDELINES §4.11). Asylum-seekers are people whose claim for international protection is registered and not yet decided; refugees, other people in need of international protection and internally displaced people are counted separately and are not included. Counts depend on each country's registration and decision speed, so a high number can reflect a backlog as well as arrivals. Set: 166 countries with a UNHCR value in both years. Above 100,000 in both years: United States, Germany, Türkiye. Fell below: South Africa (1,096,021 → 82,358), Sweden (157,017 → 4,661). Map colour: yellow = the 14 countries that crossed 100,000 since 2015; hover shows end-2025 asylum-seekers. Plate 128 ranks the biggest hosts; this plate counts how many crossed the line. Counts and sums are progrss calculations from UNHCR data.
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