UN: Nearly 60 Million Displaced People Worldwide Sets New Record

The United Nations reports that the number of displaced persons forced to leave their homes due to violence and tensions around the world has reached nearly 60 million last year, marking a new record. This figure is 8.3 million more than the number of displaced persons in 2013, the highest number of displaced individuals in a single year. Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, told reporters, "We are witnessing a paradigm shift. We are entering an era where the number of people forcibly displaced and the necessary response to it clearly overshadows anything we have seen before." According to the UN, 59.5 million people were forced to leave their homes and lives last year, "resulting from persecution, crises, public violence, or violations of human rights." A year prior, this number was 51.2 million. A decade ago, it was over 37.4 million. These figures indicate a consistent increase in the number of displaced persons and refugees. AFP reports that if all the displaced persons from last year were gathered in one place, they could form the 24th most populous "country" in the world. More than half of the world's refugees are children. According to the UN report, of the total displaced persons last year, 19.5 million were refugees, 1.8 million were asylum seekers, and 38.2 million were people who left their homes but remained in their country of origin. More than half of the world's refugees are children, a figure that has increased by 41 percent compared to 2009. By the end of 2014, Turkey, Pakistan, and Lebanon hosted the highest number of refugees.