WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – This number of displaced accounts for 0.8% of the world’s population, the report noted, the highest share displaced since UNHCR began collecting data in 1951.
"More than 60 million people are displaced from their homes as of the end of 2015, the highest number of displaced people since World War II, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)," the report stated.
The war in Syria has been one of main factors of the rapid growth in the world’s displaced population. Yet the report suggests that the reasons are more complicated. The total number represents people who have fled abroad, as well as those who are displaced within their home country.
"The UNHCR defines displaced persons as those who have been forced to leave their homes. This includes those who still live in their country of birth (internally displaced persons) as well as those who left for a different country (refugees and asylum seekers) and have yet to resettle permanently," the report added. "People can be displaced for years or, as is the case for Palestinian refugees, even for generations."
In 2015, the top three countries with the highest rate of displaced persons are Colombia (6.9 million), Syria (6.6 million) and Iraq (4.7 million).
