Geneva, Switzerland. Armed conflict displaced a record 32.3 million people in 2025, overtaking natural disasters as the leading cause of internal displacement for the first time, a joint report said. The figure marked a 60% increase from the previous year, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre and the Norwegian Refugee Council.
Record levels of displacement
The report said the total number of internally displaced people stood at 82.2 million at the end of 2025, the second highest figure on record and slightly below 2024’s peak. It recorded 65.8 million new displacements during the year, a figure that includes people forced to flee more than once.
IDMC Director Tracy Lucas described the trends as “an alarm signal” in comments to AFP, saying the numbers remained at historically high levels and that IDMC had never recorded such a high number of conflict-related displacements.
Conflict overtakes disasters
Natural disasters accounted for 29.9 million displacements in 2025, fewer than conflict for the first time, the report said.
Conflict concentrated in a handful of countries
About two thirds of new conflict displacements were recorded in Iran and the Democratic Republic of Congo, at approximately 10 million each, according to the report. By the end of 2025, 68.6 million people were internally displaced by conflict across 54 countries, with almost half concentrated in five states.
Sudan recorded the largest number for the third consecutive year, with more than nine million displaced, followed by Colombia, Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan.
Norwegian Refugee Council Director Jan Egeland said in a statement that the internal displacement of tens of millions of people reflected what he called a global collapse of conflict prevention and civilian protection. He said millions more people had been displaced from the DRC to Sudan, through Iran and Lebanon, adding to levels that were already breaking records.
Disaster displacement falls
Displacements caused by natural disasters fell 35% compared with the exceptionally high levels recorded in 2024, when figures were 13% above the decade average, the report said. It added that wildfires alone displaced nearly 700,000 people in 2025.
What do you think the report’s findings suggest about the balance between conflict and disaster risks in driving displacement?
