As many as 11 million people in the United States were forced to relocate within the country due to disasters in 2024 — a quarter of the global figure, according to the latest report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC). This was the highest for a single country in the year, the report noted.
The number of people displaced due to wildfires in the country was also the highest globally, according to the Global Report on Internal Displacements 2025. This was in keeping with the trend for the decade.
A majority of the 266,000 movements due to wildfires took place in California, the authors wrote in the report. "The largest event was the Park fire in Butte and Tehama counties in late July, triggering more than 66,000."
Wildfires are particularly debilitating for the displaced people because it delays their return home. The authors cite the example of Hawaii, where the Maui fires of August 2023 have caused 3,000 people to continue to live in internal displacement by the end of 2024, they observed.
Disaster-related internal displacements were at an all-time high across the world, with 45.8 million forced out of their homes in 2024. This was the largest figure since IDMC began monitoring the category of internal displacement in 2008. The global figure was also more than doube the annual average of the last decade, the analysis showed.
Almost all the disaster displacements (99.5 per cent) were in the aftermath of weather-related events made severe by climate change, the authors highlighted. Further, some 29 countries and territories, including the US, recorded their highest disaster displacement in 2024.
IDMC acknowledged that many of these internal displacements were pre-emptive evacuation that saved lives in places such as the US, the Philippines and Bangladesh. However, the authors flagged that without adequate support, these people may remain displaced longer than they need to be. “Of the 163 countries and territories reporting disaster displacements last year, 53 reported pre-emptive evacuations, but incomplete data means the true number is likely higher.”
Some 9.8 million people across the world were living in internal displacement in 2024 due to disasters. This is the total number of people displaced due to disasters historically who are still waiting to return home.
Moreover, some 20.1 million people were displaced internally due to conflict. The analysis also highlighted the interplay between disasters and conflict in the lives of displaced individuals. “More than three-quarters of people internally displaced by conflict and violence as of the end of 2024 were living in countries with high or very high vulnerability to climate change,” they wrote, adding that the number of countries that reported displacements due to both the reasons have tripled since 2009.
Sub-Saharan Africa witnessed the highest number of internal displacement in 2024, with 19.3 million people forced to leave home due to conflict, violence and disasters. Of this, 7.8 million were displaced due to disasters. Further, all 23 countries that recorded conflict displacements also registered movements triggered by disasters, the analysis showed.
East Asia and Pacific followed with 16.2 million internal displacements, of which 14.8 million were due to disasters. This marked the highest disaster-related movement among regions. The number of disaster displacements was the region's highest since 2016.
This was followed by the Americas, where 14.5 million people were displaced internally in 2024 — 13.1 million for disasters. The overall figure for the region was higher than the previous five years put together.
South Asia recorded 9.2 million internal displacements, almost all of which was due to disasters. "After drier conditions associated with El Niño in 2023, the number of disaster displacements in South Asia nearly tripled in 2024 to reach 9.2 million. The figure was the second highest for the region in more than a decade," the researchers wrote.
Middle East & North Africa recorded 5.7 million internal displacements. Some 599,000 of this was due to disasters.
Europe and Central Asia saw the least number of internal displacements in the year at 846,000, of which 358,000 were disaster-related. Almost 60 per cent of the region's displacement was due to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. However, 10 countries in Europe and Central Asia reported their highest disaster displacement numbers ever recorded.