Story perspectives

Record 62.2 Million Displacements in 2025, Conflict Leads

5/13/2026

Summary

Norway IDMC Report

Norway's Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre reported a record 62.2 million internal displacements in 2025.
Conflict and violence accounted for 32.3 million of those moves.
Disaster-related displacements reached 29.9 million, 13 percent above the ten-year average, after falling from 2024’s peak but staying elevated.
Data availability worsened in 15 percent of monitored countries in 2025, a threefold rise from the prior year, while the report separates forced moves from the year-end stock of internally displaced people.

Summary

UN Envoy Warns

UN envoy Paula Gaviria Betancur warned that arbitrary displacement is being used as a weapon of war.
UN agencies’ data sharing fell from 27 percent (2020-2024) to 18 percent in 2025, hampering monitoring.
US funding cuts deepened the DRC crisis, where M23’s seizure of Goma and Bukavu caused 9.748 million displacements.
Rapid Support Forces razed Sudan’s Zamzam camp in April, displacing 500,000 people.

Summary

IDPs Double

The number of internally displaced persons rose from 38.9 million in 2016 to 82.2 million in 2025, doubling the total.
In 2025, nearly half of the 31.4 million conflict-related IDPs lived in Sudan, Colombia, Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan, with Sudan hosting 9.1 million.
Wildfires displaced more than 694,000 people in 2025, marking the second-highest displacement figure recorded in the past decade.

History

Historical Context

In April 1992 the Bosnian War began, and ethnic cleansing forced about 2.2 million people from their homes, creating Europe’s largest post-World-War displacement crisis. The experience prompted the UN to adopt the 1998 Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, establishing a framework for later emergencies. The 2025 surge of millions displaced across Sudan, the DRC and Colombia, highlighted by UN envoy Paula Gaviria Betancur and Norway’s IDMC, echoes Bosnia’s precedent.

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Norway IDMC Report

Norway's Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre reported a record 62.2 million internal displacements in 2025.
Conflict and violence accounted for 32.3 million of those moves.
Disaster-related displacements reached 29.9 million, 13 percent above the ten-year average, after falling from 2024’s peak but staying elevated.
Data availability worsened in 15 percent of monitored countries in 2025, a threefold rise from the prior year, while the report separates forced moves from the year-end stock of internally displaced people.

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