Refugee mental health statistics worldwide

Updated October 2026

Depression and post-traumatic stress are common among refugees and other displaced people, though many cope well. The key figures below come from a World Health Organization fact sheet ¹, a meta-analysis in PLoS Medicine, which pools the results of many studies ², and World Health Organization estimates for conflict-affected places ³.

Refugees and other people forced from their homes have lived through war, persecution, loss and long journeys, and many then face uncertainty, separation from family and barriers to care. The World Health Organization notes that for most people the distress that follows improves over time ¹, but rates of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress are higher than in the general population.

Figures vary widely with the method of measurement. Screening questionnaires give higher rates than diagnostic interviews, and many studies cover one camp, city or clinic. Each figure below names its population and method.

Getting help

If something on this page reflects what you are going through, you do not have to manage it alone. Our guide to finding the right therapist explains how to choose someone qualified, and the TherapyRoute directory lists therapists in many countries.

If you are in crisis or thinking about suicide, our list of helplines and crisis lines worldwide gives free services by country. In an emergency, call your local emergency number.

People forced from their homes

Most refugees and others needing international protection live in low and middle income countries ¹.

• About 49 million of the world’s forcibly displaced people are children. (administrative records, at one point in time, published 2026, data year not stated) ⁴
• Low and middle income countries host 71% of the world’s refugees and others needing international protection. (administrative records, at one point in time, 2024 data) ¹

Mental health worldwide

Reviews that pooled studies of refugees and asylum seekers, and of whole populations living through conflict, found depression and post-traumatic stress far more common than in the general population. The two sets of rates come from different studies and methods, so readers cannot compare them directly.

• Across pooled studies of adult refugees and asylum seekers, 11% had an anxiety disorder. (pooled from prevalence studies, published 2020) ²
• Across pooled studies using clinical interviews, 1.5% of adult refugees and asylum seekers had a psychotic disorder. (pooled from prevalence studies, published 2020) ²
• Among women refugees and asylum seekers, the pooled rate of PTSD was 34.0%, higher than for men. (pooled from prevalence studies, published 2020) ²
• Among adult refugees and asylum seekers who had come from African countries, the pooled rate of PTSD was 48.3%. (pooled from prevalence studies, published 2020) ²
• An estimated 5.1% of people in low-income and middle-income settings affected by conflict in the previous ten years had schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or severe depression, anxiety or PTSD at any one time. (modelled, at one point in time, published 2019, data year not stated) ³
• In low-income and middle-income settings affected by conflict in the previous ten years, an estimated 9.1% of people had moderate or severe depression, anxiety, PTSD, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia at any one time. (modelled, at one point in time, published 2019, data year not stated) ³
• In low-income and middle-income settings affected by conflict in the previous ten years, the estimated rate of depression was 10.8%, above the global average. (modelled, at one point in time, published 2019, data year not stated) ³
• In low-income and middle-income settings affected by conflict in the previous ten years, an estimated 15.3% of people had PTSD at any one time, adjusted for age. (modelled, published 2019) ³

Children

Children make up a large share of displaced people. Studies of children held in immigration detention found high rates of depression and post-traumatic stress. These are group averages for children with experience of immigration detention, not figures for all displaced children.

• Among children with experience of immigration detention, the pooled rate of depression was 42.2%. (pooled from prevalence studies, published 2025) ⁵
• Among children with experience of immigration detention, the pooled rate of PTSD was 32.0%. (pooled from prevalence studies, published 2025) ⁵

Grief and loss

Many refugees have lost family members. Prolonged grief, where mourning stays intense and disabling for a long time, is common after violent loss. ICD-11 is the World Health Organization's international list of health conditions used for diagnosis.

• Among bereaved refugees resettled in Australia, surveyed in 2015-2016, 15.8% met ICD-11 criteria for probable prolonged grief disorder. (survey, 2015-2016 data) ⁶
• Among people in Colombia displaced by the armed conflict who had lost someone to death, interviewed in 2012, 31.5% met criteria for prolonged grief disorder on an older research questionnaire not validated in Colombia. (survey, 2012 data) ⁷
• Among adult refugees in the Building a New Life in Australia study who had probable prolonged grief disorder, 56.3% had ever received psychological help in Australia. (survey, lifetime (ever), 2015-2016 data) ⁶

Care and what works

Trials in camps and cities have tested short programmes that trained non-specialists can deliver, with mixed but encouraging results.

In these trials, enhanced usual care meant the usual services plus information about where to get further help, and in some trials basic information about mental health. Self-Help Plus is a World Health Organization group course in managing stress, run with recorded audio by briefly trained group leaders who are not specialists. In Uganda, refugee women with distress who took it were much less likely to go on to develop a mental disorder than women given enhanced usual care. Group Problem Management Plus is a brief group programme delivered by lay helpers, people without professional mental health training; in Jordan it reduced depression more than enhanced usual care, but not anxiety. A risk ratio compares the chance of an outcome in two groups: one means no difference, and the further below one, the lower the risk in the programme group. An effect size shows how big a change or a difference is, on a common scale across studies; the further it is from zero, the bigger the change. A value near zero, positive or negative, means little or no difference. A standardised mean difference is one kind of effect size.

• Two surveys followed adult Syrian refugees with residence permits on unemployment benefits in one city in Germany. Of the one hundred and eight in both, 6.5% said in 2017 they had already received psychological help. (survey, lifetime (ever), 2017 data) ⁸
• In a Ugandan trial, distressed South Sudanese refugee women without a probable disorder taking Self-Help Plus were less likely than women on enhanced usual care to have one after the course (risk ratio 0.16). (randomised trial, 2016-2017 data) ⁹
• In a European trial, distressed refugees and asylum seekers without a disorder who took Self-Help Plus developed fewer disorders than those on enhanced usual care afterwards (risk ratio 0.50), but not six months later. (randomised trial, 2018-2020 data) ¹⁰
• In Azraq camp in Jordan, Syrian refugees aged eighteen and over with distress and impaired functioning had Group Problem Management Plus from lay helpers or enhanced usual care. Each cared for a child aged ten to sixteen at home. Three months later, the programme group had fewer depression symptoms (effect size 0.40). (randomised trial, 2019-2020 data) ¹¹
• In Azraq camp in Jordan, Syrian refugees aged eighteen and over with distress and impaired functioning had Group Problem Management Plus or enhanced usual care. Each cared for a child aged ten to sixteen at home. Three months later, the programme group had no less anxiety (effect size -0.03). (randomised trial, 2019-2020 data) ¹¹
• In a trial among displaced Syrians aged eighteen and over with depression and impaired functioning in Lebanon, the WHO guided digital programme Step-by-Step reduced depression more than enhanced usual care (standardised mean difference 0.48). (randomised trial, 2019-2020 data) ¹²

National figures

Researchers ran these studies in camps, settlements, reception centres and cities in host countries. They used different tools, and each figure names its population. A cut-off is the score on a questionnaire at which a person counts as likely to have a condition; it is not a diagnosis. Somatisation is distress felt as physical symptoms. DSM is the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual.

• Among people newly resettled in Australia on humanitarian visas, 31% screened positive for PTSD on a short questionnaire a few months after arrival. (survey, 2013-2014 data) ¹³
• Among the same newly resettled humanitarian migrants in Australia, 16% scored in the severe range on a psychological distress screening scale. (survey, 2013-2014 data) ¹³
• Among adults newly arrived at a refugee reception facility in Germany, 49.7% screened positive for PTSD, depression or somatisation. (survey, at one point in time, 2017-2018 data) ¹⁴
• Using DSM criteria, 28.2% of adults newly arrived at the reception facility in Germany met the threshold for PTSD. (questionnaire scored on DSM criteria, 2017-2018 data) ¹⁴
• Two surveys followed adult Syrian refugees on unemployment benefits in one city in Germany. Among the one hundred and eight who took part in both, 26.9% had clinically relevant depression symptoms over the past two weeks at the first survey, in 2017. All held residence permits. (survey, at one point in time, 2017 data) ⁸
• Among Eritrean refugees in Dabat town in northwest Ethiopia, 45% had symptoms of depression in 2023. (survey, at one point in time, 2023 data) ¹⁵
• Among Eritrean refugees in Dabat town in northwest Ethiopia, 37.3% had symptoms of PTSD. (survey, at one point in time, 2023 data) ¹⁵
• Among adult Sudanese refugees at Bambasi camp in Ethiopia, 46.2% had depressive symptoms. (survey, at one point in time, 2023 data) ¹⁶
• Among adult Sudanese refugees at Bambasi camp in Ethiopia, 39.6% had anxiety symptoms. (survey, at one point in time, 2023 data) ¹⁶
• Among pregnant Rohingya women living in camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, 42.7% scored above a symptom checklist's cut-off for depression. (survey, at one point in time, 2023-2024 data) ¹⁷
• Among pregnant Rohingya women living in camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, 62.9% scored above a symptom checklist's cut-off for anxiety. (survey, at one point in time, 2023-2024 data) ¹⁷
• In the Cox’s Bazar camps in Bangladesh, household representatives reported that 38.4% of adult Rohingya refugees had shown frequent psychosocial distress or trauma in the past two weeks. (survey, at one point in time, 2023-2024 data) ¹⁸
• On Bhasan Char island in Bangladesh, household representatives reported that 60.8% of adult Rohingya refugees had shown frequent distress or trauma in the past two weeks, more than in Cox’s Bazar. (survey, at one point in time, 2023-2024 data) ¹⁸
• Among low-income adult Venezuelan migrant women caring for children in Colombia, 63% had moderate to severe psychological distress in the past month. (survey, at one point in time, 2023 data) ¹⁹
• Among adult Syrian refugees surveyed in informal tented settlements in Lebanon, 22% had moderate to severe depression symptoms. (survey, at one point in time, 2018-2020 data) ²⁰

National figures side by side

These figures come from different tools and settings, often a single camp or city. Read each row with its label, and do not rank the countries.

How to read these figures

Screening questionnaires flag likely distress; diagnostic interviews confirm a disorder. Screening gives higher figures, and each figure says which it used.

Many studies cover one camp, settlement or city, and their figures may not hold for all refugees in that country.

Interviews through interpreters, and very small studies, tended to give higher rates in the review of refugees and asylum seekers.

Trial results vary: some programmes helped for a while, and some effects faded within months.

A rate adjusted for age allows for differences in a population's age make-up, so comparisons are fair.

Psychological help adapted to language and culture, including short programmes delivered by trained community workers, has shown benefit in several trials.

If you or someone close to you is struggling after displacement, a psychologist or counsellor who understands trauma can help, and many services work with interpreters. Our guide on how to find the right therapist explains what to look for. If you are in distress right now, see our helplines and crisis lines worldwide.

Cite this page: TherapyRoute. Refugee mental health statistics worldwide. https://www.therapyroute.com/article/refugee-mental-health-statistics-worldwide-by-therapyroute. Last updated 26 October 2026.

References

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