Refugees & Asylum Seekers

The U.S. has taken in 3 million of the more than 4 million refugees resettled worldwide since 1980. But in 2017, the U.S. resettled 33,000 refugees, the country’s lowest total since the years following 9/11.

As the U.S. is on track to admit its smallest number of refugees in decades, opinions about whether the U.S. has a responsibility to accept refugees have become more polarized.

The number of Muslim refugees admitted to the U.S. in the first half of fiscal 2018 has dropped from the previous year more than any other religious group.

More people sought asylum in Canada in 2017 than at any point in at least a quarter-century. Furthermore, the 50,420 asylum applications Canada received in 2017 were more than double the number in 2016.

Nearly 13 million Syrians are displaced after seven years of conflict in their country. No nation in recent decades has had such a large percentage of its population displaced.

The U.S. has more foreign students enrolled in its colleges and universities than any other country in the world. Explore data about foreign students in the U.S. higher education system.

The resettlement of refugees in the U.S. has been fairly consistent across the country since 2002, with no state resettling a majority of them. In fiscal year 2017, no state resettled more than 10% of the 53,716 refugees the nation admitted that year.

Refugees are resettled throughout the United States. This interactive tool displays the top nationality of refugees resettled across each state between fiscal 2002 and 2017.

In the last few years, the number of refugees annually resettled by the U.S. has not consistently grown in step with a worldwide refugee population that has expanded nearly 50% since 2013.

In all, more than half a million asylum seekers from Syria during the 2015-16 migration surge had received permission to stay in Europe as of Dec. 31, 2016.