At about 19 million, the number of people seeking ASYLUM is larger now than ever before.
The number has risen almost every year
since the mid-seventies, when the United Nations counted some 2.5 million REFUGEES.
Before that, the number had fluctuated less and was much smaller, with fewer than 2 million official refugees at mid-century.
AFGHANISTAN has produced the highest number of EXILES from a homeland. About 6 million refugees - a third of the world total - have fled Afghanistan, almost all to IRAN and PAKISTAN, though some have now returned.
At the end of 1992, ASIA accounted for about 7 million refugees total, the most of any continent. AFRICA was second, with 5,4 million.
With the collapse of YOUGOSLAVIA and the former SOVIET UNION, EUROPE suddenly had 3.6 million people living outside their home country at the end of 1992. And LATIN AMERICA and NORTH AMERICA each had about 1 million.