The latest annual statistics from the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reveal that Germany has the second-highest number of refugees in the world.
Of the 35.6 million international refugees globally, 36 percent reside in six host nations. For the 2025 tracking period, the UN report breaks this group down into 27 million individuals granted protection under the Geneva Convention, 7.2 million holding alternative international protection frameworks, and 1.5 million living under refugee-like circumstances.
Colombia holds the top spot globally with 2.8 million refugees, nearly all of whom arrived from neighboring Venezuela. Germany follows immediately as the second largest host state, accommodating 2.7 million refugees.
Germany would likely hold the top spot, but hundreds of thousands of its refugees have already become citizens, which means they no longer hold refugee status. In addition, many have also received permanent residency status, which also removes their refugee status, according to the UNHCR.
According to agency data, the largest refugee groups in Germany are Ukrainians at 1.2 million, dropping three percent from the prior year, followed by 668,600 Syrians, down 8 percent from 2024, and 288,300 Afghans, an increase of 3 percent.
The statistics here, are therefore misleading to some degree. In fact, there were 4,800 Syrian applications already logged this year, in 2026, which means the number of Syrians is increasing in reality. However, surging naturalizations means many of these Syrians are simply becoming German citizens.
Following Germany, Turkey has 2.4 million refugees, mostly from neighboring Syria, Uganda with 1.9 million, Iran with 1.7 million, Chad with 1.5 million, and Pakistan with 1.3 million.
Unlike Germany, many of the Syrians in Turkey are returning home, leading to a 19 percent drop in 2025.
By the conclusion of 2025, the annual report calculated that 117.8 million individuals were actively displaced by conflict or persecution. This represents a contraction of four percent, or roughly 5.4 million people, compared to the previous year’s metrics.
German right-wing party Alternative for Germany (AfD) is demanding that Syrians return home to rebuild their homeland. When former Chancellor Angela Merkel first announced Syrians would be admitted into German territory in 2015, she stated that once there was peace in their country, they would be expected to return home.
That turned out to be a major ploy, with the vast majority of Syrians seeking German citizenship with no plans to resettle in their homeland.
Data shows that Syrians committed 135,000 crimes against Germans over the course of ten years, resulting in a crime every 39 minutes. Their total crimes are much higher when factoring in crimes against other Syrians and other foreign groups.
In March of this year, Chancellor Friedrich Merz claimed that he wanted 80 percent of Syrians to return home in three years. In fact, he claimed that Syria’s new leader wanted the same thing.
“In the longer perspective of the next three years, it is the wish of President al-Sharaa that around 80 percent of the Syrians in Germany should go back into their homeland,” said Merz, before adding: “We need a reliable repatriation option, cooperation with Syria.”
Instead, tens of thousands of Syrians are being naturalized every few months, making any return efforts highly unlikely.
