The Global Refugee Crisis

CREATE Lab has mapped the movement of refugees around the world for every year since 2000. The map uses data from the U.N. Refugee Agency to show where refugees have come from and which countries around the globe that they have fled to.

At first glance the animated flowing dots on the Global Refugee Flow map can be a little confusing. As with a lot of animated maps it can be hard to pick out information from all the noise on the map. As the timeline plays however you can observe patterns on the map. For example you can see how neighboring countries most often receive the most refugees from countries in crisis and that western countries usually get off very lightly.

The countries listed along the bottom of the map are where a high proportion of peoples have been forced to flee their homes and become refugees. If you select one of these countries the map will zoom-in on the country and an information window will open explaining the crisis that led to people leaving the country.


Flight & Expulsion is a more explorable interactive mapped visualization of the same worldwide migration data from the annual UNHCR Refugee Report. This map allows you to explore the refugee data for any country to see how they have responded to crises around the world.

If you select a country on the map you can view the number of 'arrivals' and 'departures' for any year from 1988 to 2008. The countries where a high proportion of citizens have emigrated to are shown on the map in green. The countries where immigrants have come from are shown on the map in brown.