Over 30 Million People Displaced in 2022 Due to Natural Disasters
In the eleventh edition of its World Migration Report, the UN’s International Organization on Migration provided an overview of global migrations. The report, focusing on data from 2022, includes global migration trends from various causes, including conflict and violence and disasters. A key finding is that 32.6 million new internal displacements of people in 2022 were from disasters.
By the end of 2022, there were 60.9 million new internal displacements, of which 32.6 million (53%) were triggered by disasters.
In Africa, the largest number of disaster displacements occurred in Nigeria (about 2.4 million), followed by Somalia (1.2 million), Ethiopia (873,000), and South Sudan (596,000).
Pakistan had the largest number of disaster displacements in the world, with more than 8 million, in part due to widespread flooding.
The Philippines had the second largest number of disaster displacements of nearly 5.5 million, largely in response to typhoons and tropical storms. China was third, with over 3.6 million.
Bangladesh also experienced record-breaking floods in 2022, triggering over 1.5 million displacements.
In Europe, France (45,000) and Spain (31,000) had the largest number of displacements, mostly triggered by wildfires.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, Brazil had the largest number of displacements of 708,000 due to floods from heavy rains. This was followed by Colombia (281,000) from floods and Cuba (90,000) from Hurricane Ian.
In North America, the US had 675,000 movements, almost half of which were due to Hurricane Ian. Canada had 15,000 displacements.
In Oceania, Australia had the largest disaster displacements with 17,000 due to floods, followed by Papua New Guinea (9,600).
Note: A “significant portion of the global total of displacements by disasters is usually associated with short-term evacuations in a relatively safe and orderly manner.”
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