IDMC's GRID 2026 release places the world's internally displaced population at 82.2 million at the end of 2025 — down 1.5% from 2024's record 83.5 million. The modern era of the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre's (IDMC) Global Internal Displacement Database (GIDD) and its accompanying Global Report on Internal Displacement (GRID) began in 2016, with disaster figures comprehensively included from 2019 onward; 2025 is the first year in this series in which the year-end stock has fallen. The drop is small and arithmetic: large reported reductions in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria and Lebanon offset record new displacement elsewhere.
New conflict displacements during 2025 reached 32.3 million — the highest annual conflict flow on record and a 60% jump on 2024. People still displaced by disasters at year-end rose 37% to 13.6 million, also a record. So while the headline stock dropped, the underlying pressure on protection systems intensified along both dimensions.
The regional shifts are sharper than the global headline suggests. Sub-Saharan Africa's stock fell for the first time since IDMC began comprehensive reporting, the Americas reached a new high of 10.5 million, MENA accounted for 41% of global conflict flow, and South Asia's conflict flow grew nearly 49-fold to 548,000. IDMC's own framing is direct: as conflicts intensify, "it is often the same people who are uprooted again and again, yet the systems meant to protect them are being dismantled."
Where 2025 happened
The geography of the year divides cleanly. Conflict displacement concentrated in a belt running from West Africa through the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, the eastern Mediterranean, and into South Asia. Disaster displacement concentrated on the other side of the world — the Pacific typhoon corridor through the Philippines, China and Indonesia, with a separate large signal from Pakistan's mid-year monsoon.
The map above is centred on the conflict-and-disaster axis that defines 2025: the African / MENA / South Asia belt where the year's record conflict flow concentrated, and the East Asia / Pacific corridor where its disaster flow concentrated. Toggle Conflict / Disaster / All to isolate either narrative.
The globe is centred on Africa to keep the dominant 2025 story — DR Congo, Sudan, Palestine, Syria, the broader Sahel — in a single frame. The Philippines (10.7M new disaster displacements) and the rest of East Asia / Pacific sit on the eastern horizon; the Americas (Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador) on the western horizon.
Stock dips for the first time; flow keeps climbing
Global IDP stock more than doubled across the decade IDMC has tracked — from 38.9 million in 2016 to a record 83.5 million in 2024. The first three years of the series (2016–2018) showed only modest growth, almost entirely conflict-driven. The jump to 49.1 million in 2019 reflects IDMC's first comprehensive year of disaster-displacement reporting, not a sudden uptick in actual displacement. From 2019 onward the line is monotonically upward — until 2025, the first year in the series where stock falls.
Record high, with DR Congo at the centre
The 2025 conflict flow is the most concentrated in the GIDD series. The Democratic Republic of Congo recorded 9.75 million new conflict displacements — IDMC's headline figure for the year and the country's own historical record, up from 5.35M in 2024. DRC alone accounts for roughly 30% of global conflict flow. Palestine added 2.76M as escalating violence and protracted displacement continued. Sudan contributed 1.73M, Haiti 0.98M, South Sudan 0.86M.
Regionally, MENA generated 13.4 million new conflict displacements — 41% of the global total — driven by ongoing escalation across multiple countries in the region. Sub-Saharan Africa added 14.4 million.
The world's storms landed on the Pacific
Disaster flow in 2025 — 29.9M new displacements — was down sharply from 2024's 45.8M, but the headline obscures a geographic concentration. East Asia and the Pacific generated 17.5M new disaster displacements alone — over half the global total. The Philippines, China and Indonesia all recorded their highest disaster displacement in a decade as powerful typhoons and end-of-year storms struck the region in sequence. South Asia's disaster flow halved to 4.6M after a milder monsoon.
| ISO3 | Country | Hazard | Displaced | Event |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PHL | Philippines | Storm | 3,594,175 | Typhoon Fung-wong (locally Uwan) |
| PHL | Philippines | Storm | 3,183,303 | Typhoon Kalmaegi (locally Tino) |
| PAK | Pakistan | Flood | 2,819,767 | Punjab monsoon flooding, July 2025 |
| PHL | Philippines | Storm | 1,876,966 | TC Mitag (Miray) — Philippines, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Macao, Viet Nam |
| CHL | Chile | Earthquake | 1,500,000 | Tsunami, 30 July 2025 — Chile, Ecuador |
| IDN | Indonesia | Storm | 1,126,212 | TC Senyar + Northeast Monsoon, North Sumatra |
| PHL | Philippines | Storm | 1,121,255 | TC Wipha (Crising) |
| CUB | Cuba | Storm | 735,000 | Caribbean hurricane — DOM, CUB, BHS, JAM, HTI |
Top 8 single events by new disaster displacement, 2025. Source: IDMC GIDD disaster events feed.
Eight of the ten biggest IDP populations remain 100% conflict-driven
Stock reflects what flow leaves behind. Sudan remains the world's largest internal displacement crisis at 9.1M, even after the 2.4M reduction. Colombia (7.2M), Afghanistan (7.0M), Syria (6.0M), Bangladesh (5.5M) and DR Congo (4.9M) round out the top six. In the top 10, conflict accounts for 100% of stock in seven countries (Sudan, Colombia, Syria, Yemen, Ukraine, Somalia, Burkina Faso), 95% in Nigeria, 93% in Myanmar, and 87% in DR Congo. Only Bangladesh is majority disaster-driven (89%) — its 5.5M is the most striking entry in the table, jumping from 0.59M in 2024 (+831%) as protracted monsoon and cyclone displacement reclassified into the year-end stock figure.
Five regional stories the global headline hides
SSA Sub-Saharan Africa
First decline in a decade. Stock fell from 38.7M to 31.6M, driven by reported reductions in Sudan, DR Congo and Chad. The region still hosts 38% of the world's IDP population and generated 14.4M new conflict displacements in 2025.
AMR The Americas
A new regional high. Haiti, Colombia and Ecuador all recorded record-level displacement during 2025. Latin America's combined conflict-and-criminal-violence flow rose to 1.6M new movements.
MENA Middle East & North Africa
Total stock declined from 16.6M to 14.2M as Syria and Lebanon reported returns. But new conflict displacements in the region tripled to 13.4M — 41% of the global conflict flow — driven by Palestine and the wider regional escalation.
EAP East Asia & Pacific
About one-third of the world's new displacements in 2025 happened in this region — driven almost entirely by storms in the Philippines (10.7M), China (3.5M) and Indonesia (1.5M). The decade-high disaster signal here is the year's most concentrated regional story.
SAS South Asia
Conflict displacement in the region grew from 11,200 in 2024 to 548,000 in 2025 — a nearly 49-fold increase — driven primarily by Pakistan's border crossings (251K), Afghanistan (168K) and India's Manipur (128K). Disaster flow halved to 4.6M after a milder monsoon.
ECA Europe & Central Asia
Ukraine continues to anchor the region with 3.7M IDPs. Total flow fell to 0.46M as the active-conflict pulse from Ukraine moved from new displacement into protracted stock.
Bangladesh climbs; Sudan, DRC, Syria descend
The biggest 2024→2025 stock movements split sharply between disaster-driven growth and conflict-driven returns. Bangladesh's +4.95M, Afghanistan's +1.49M and Cambodia's +0.52M reflect monsoon, drought and conflict displacement settling into the protracted column. Sudan, DR Congo, Syria, Lebanon and Chad show large stock reductions — driven partly by reported returns, partly by IDMC methodology revisions, and partly by cross-border refugee outflows that remove people from the IDP count without bringing them home.
Twenty-two fewer countries reporting
147 countries reported 2025 figures to IDMC as of the API refresh on 15 May 2026, against 169 in 2024. IDMC routinely revises previous years upward as additional national reporting arrives — meaning the 2025 numbers in this analysis are an early cut, not a final.
Several known crisis contexts have not yet submitted full 2025 estimates: a subset of Sahel countries with active conflict, Pacific island states routinely exposed to slow-onset disasters, and a small number of Central and West African countries. IDMC's near-real-time IDU (Internal Displacement Updates) feed for the same window indicates that these are reporting delays, not absences of displacement. Headline numbers should be expected to move when GRID 2027 publishes the full revision next May.
What 2025 means for 2026 humanitarian programming
"As conflicts are intensifying, it is often the same people who are uprooted again and again. Yet the systems meant to protect them are being dismantled."
— Tracy Lucas, IDMC Director