Pan-African
How refugee and asylum populations changed in seven African countries
UNHCR recorded just over one million refugees in Ethiopia at the end of 2025 and 617,125 in Kenya. Egypt recorded 220,033 refugees and 878,268 asylum seekers, two separate categories.
Sources checked
- Egypt220,033 people
- Ethiopia1,010,466 people
- Kenya617,125 people
- Morocco7,304 people
- Nigeria123,848 people
- Rwanda115,794 people
- South Africa55,177 people
Natural Earth land outlines and dashed land boundaries.
Switch population category, then select a capital marker to read the country’s 2025 count.
Source 1 Source 2 Source 3 Source 4 Source 5 Source 6 Source 7 Source 8 Source 9
Ethiopia’s refugee count was above one million in 2024 and 2025
UNHCR recorded 736,081 refugees in Ethiopia in 2015 and 1,010,466 at the end of 2025. Kenya’s refugee count moved from 553,907 to 617,125. Their asylum-seeker counts were 112,987 and 218,646 in 2025. Source 4 Source 5
Egypt’s largest 2025 category here was asylum seekers
The asylum-seeker population increased from 56,446 in 2020 to 638,948 in 2024 and 878,268 in 2025. Egypt’s refugee count moved from 272,826 in 2020 to 220,033 in 2025. Changes in registration and decisions can affect the two categories separately. Source 3 Source 1
The table reports a population at year-end
The refugee and asylum-seeker figures count people recorded at a date. They do not give the number of asylum applications made during the year or total border crossings. UNHCR provides separate records for claims, decisions and returns. Source 1
Map pins are national locators
The coordinates locate national capitals. The counts relate to the whole country of asylum, so the pins do not identify local communities or where displaced people live. The table also excludes other UNHCR categories from these two columns. Source 2 Source 1
Sources
- UNHCR Refugee Data Finder methodology and definitions
- World Bank country metadata, capital locator coordinates
- UNHCR Refugee Statistics API, year-end population in Egypt
- UNHCR Refugee Statistics API, year-end population in Ethiopia
- UNHCR Refugee Statistics API, year-end population in Kenya
- UNHCR Refugee Statistics API, year-end population in Morocco
- UNHCR Refugee Statistics API, year-end population in Nigeria
- UNHCR Refugee Statistics API, year-end population in Rwanda
- UNHCR Refugee Statistics API, year-end population in South Africa