Colombia accounts for 7.2 million of Latin America’s 10.5 million internally displaced as global total hits 82 million

The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) reports that by the end of 2025 an estimated 10.5 million people were internally displaced in Latin America, with 7.2 million living in Colombia. This makes Colombia the second‑largest source of internal displacement worldwide, after Sudan’s 9.1 million.

Globally, internal displacement reached a new record of 82.2 million at the close of 2025, a slight decline from 2024 but still the second‑highest level since monitoring began in 1998. For the first time in a decade, conflict‑related displacements (68.6 million in 54 countries) exceeded those caused by natural disasters (13.6 million). Major disaster‑driven movements were recorded in Bangladesh (6 million), Afghanistan (2.6 million), Ethiopia (0.75 million) and Turkey (0.65 million).

Within Latin America, 5.9 million people experienced multiple moves over the year. Disasters accounted for 4.3 million relocations, including 1.5 million evacuations in Chile due to tsunami alerts, and significant flows in the United States, Cuba and Brazil. Conflict‑related displacement was especially high in Haiti (977 000) and Ecuador (132 000). The data underscore a growing humanitarian crisis that remains largely invisible compared with cross‑border refugee flows.