71M displaced due to war, natural disasters last year: research

The number of people internally displaced by war or natural disasters reached a record high last year, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, according to a new report.

71.1 million people across the globe were living in internal displacement by the end of 2022, according to a report by the Norwegian Refugee Council. The number, which marked a 20 percent increase from the year before, was the highest ever.

People who are internally displaced are those who have been forced to flee their homes to avoid armed conflict, violence, violations of human rights and natural or human-caused disasters, according to the United Nations. 

The surge in total displacements was aided by a near double in the number of displacements due to violence in 2022, according to the report, with 28.3 million people displaced by conflict. In Ukraine, 16.87 million people were displaced due to the war, the largest figure ever recorded in the report.

The only other countries with more than 1 million people displaced due to conflict in 2022 were the Democratic Republic of Congo, where more than 4 million were displaced, Ethiopia and Myanmar.

There were 32.6 million displacements worldwide due to natural or human-made disasters, which was 41 percent higher than the average over the past decade.

The report pinned the increase on the La Niña weather phenomenon, which caused record levels of flooding displacement in places like Pakistan, Nigeria and Brazil. It also caused drought conditions in parts of Africa.

More than 8 million people were internally displaced in Pakistan due to disasters, with 5.4 million displaced in the Philippines and more than 3.6 million in China.

There were 675,000 people displaced in the U.S. due to natural or human-caused disasters.