The World of Refugee Families at a Glance

Courtesy UNHCR

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There are approximately 40 million uprooted people around the world- refugees who have sought safety in another country, and people displaced within their own country. 75-80% of them are women and children.

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——–*  The majority of people flee their homes because of war, and the proportion of war victims who are civilians leaped in recent decades from 5% to over 90% of casualties. 80% of casualties by small arms are women and children, who far outnumber military casualties.

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——–*  It is estimated that 9,000,000 children were orphaned, wounded, or killed in conflict during the past decade.

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——–*  More than 300,000 youngsters, many of them little girls, are currently serving as child soldiers around the world. The girls are often forced into different forms of sexual slavery.

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——–*  An estimated 45,000 households in Rwanda are headed by children, 90% of them girls.

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——–*  An estimated 1.3 billion people worldwide live in absolute poverty on less than $1 a day.

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——–*  Children, whether accompanied by parents or on their own, account for as many as half of all asylum seekers in the industrialized world.

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——–* At any one time, there may be up to 100,000 separated children in western Europe alone.

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——–*  School buildings, like teachers and children, have become deliberate targets in war. During the Mozambique conflict in the 80’s and 90’s, for instance, 45% of all schools were destroyed.

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UNHCR Refugees by Numbers 2006 edition (pdf)

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