Lebanon Has By Far The Most Refugees Per 1,000 Population

Turkey hosts the most refugees of any country worldwide with 3.7 million in total at the end of 2018, ahead of Pakistan (1.4 million) and Uganda (1.2 million). As a share of the population, however, Lebanon hosts the most by far with 156 per 1,000 of its inhabitants. Jordan comes second with 72 per 1,000 of its population while Turkey rounds off the top three with 45 per 1,000 of its people. Prior to the war in Syria, Lebanon only hosted 8,000 refugees and the huge influx has pushed its socio-economic absorption capacity to the very limit.

By the end of 2018, the number of people fleeing war, persecution and conflict exceeded 70 million according to the UNHCR, the highest level the UN's Refugee Agency has seen in nearly 70 years. At the end of last year, 57 percent of the world's refugees came from just three countries - Syria, Afghanistan and South Sudan.