This is one of the major findings of the Global Report on Internal Displacement 2026, published this Tuesday by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC). Never before has the world had so many people displaced within their own country.
According to the Global Report on Internal Displacement 2026 (GRID 2026), 82.2 million people were living in a situation of internal displacement at the end of 2025. A figure almost doubled in ten years, which illustrates the scale of a crisis now described as structural and global.
Conflicts exceed natural disasters
In 2025, conflict and violence caused 32.3 million new internal displacements, an increase of 60% compared to 2024. For the first time since this data was collected, it overtook natural disasters as the main driver of forced displacement.
International wars, persistent internal conflicts, attacks on urban areas: growing instability pushes millions of civilians to flee, often repeatedly, without ever leaving their country’s borders.
“The same people are uprooted again and again, while the systems meant to protect them weaken.”alerts the director of the IDMC, Tracy Lucas.
Climate disasters: an ever-present danger
Natural disasters nevertheless remain a major cause of displacement. Storms, floods, fires and other climatic hazards led to 29.9 million internal displacements in 2025. A figure down compared to the year 2024, marked by exceptional disasters, but still higher than the average of the last decade.
The report highlights the growing impact of climate change, which is modifying the geography of risks: countries previously relatively spared are now experiencing massive displacements, while already vulnerable areas remain chronically exposed.
Sub-Saharan Africa on the front line
With 31.7 million internally displaced people, sub-Saharan Africa accounts for nearly 40% of the world total, despite a slight decline recorded in 2025. A deceptive decrease, linked in part to returns reported in certain countries, but often under conditions precarious and unstable.
Two countries alone account for a massive share of displacement due to conflicts: Iran, with around 10 million internal displacements, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, with nearly 9.7 million. Together, they represent almost two-thirds of conflict-related displacement recorded worldwide in 2025.
The Middle East, South Asia, the Americas as well as certain regions of Europe and Central Asia also remain strongly affected by instability and violence.
A lasting crisis without sufficient solutions
Beyond the figures, the report emphasizes the absence of durable solutions for millions of internally displaced people. Unsafe returns, lack of local integration, inadequacy of public policies: for many states, internal displacement remains treated as a one-off humanitarian emergency rather than as a long-term development problem.
In a context of growing humanitarian needs and declining financial resources, the IDMC calls for strengthening national systems for data collection, conflict prevention and adaptation to climate change.
A warning for the international community
The message from GRID 2026 is clear: without strong and coordinated political action, the number of internally displaced people will continue to increase. “Internal displacement is no longer a marginal crisis, but a lasting reality of our world,” warns the IDMC.
A warning which concerns first and foremost the affected countries, but also the entire international community, faced with increasingly profound global instability.
