Global Report on Internal Displacement 2025

Regional Overviews

East Asia & Pacific
After two years during which the number of disaster displacements in East Asia and the Pacific fell as a result of drier conditions associated with El Niño, the figure for 2024 was the highest since 2016, at 14.8 million. Powerful typhoons that hit highly populated countries, including the Philippines and China, triggered the vast majority.
 
Floods there and in other countries in East and South-east Asia also fuelled the overall increase in disaster displacement in the region and contributed to pushing the global figures to their highest on record. Fewer movements were reported in the Pacific compared with the previous year. Disasters left around 1.5 million people living in displacement across the region as of the end of the year, most of them in the Philippines.
 
The number of displacements triggered by conflict and violence fell slightly from its peak in 2023 but it was still the second highest on record at 1.5 million, most of which took place in Myanmar. The number of movements in the Mindanao region of the Philippines was its highest since 2017, and communal violence led to a six-fold increase in the figure for Papua New Guinea.
 
Displacement by conflict and violence is highly concentrated in a handful of countries but has increased sharply since 2021, leaving 3.8 million people living in displacement at the end of 2024, most of them in Myanmar.

Powerful typhoons trigger record displacement
The Philippines is one of the world’s major disaster risk hotspots and more typhoons pass through its territory than anywhere in the world. A record nine million disaster displacements were recorded countrywide last year, 86 per cent of which were triggered by typhoons. Protocols have been in place for years to move people out of harm’s way before major events, making displacement an important coping mechanism.
 
Even before the typhoon season, which typically starts in July, major storms and floods triggered significant displacement. Floods in the Davao and Caraga regions on the southern island of Mindanao triggered more than 600,000 movements as early as January, the country’s highest flood displacement figure in more than a decade. The vast majority of those displaced were able to return home by the end of March.
 
The first major displacement event of the typhoon season was the result of the combined effects of the south-west monsoon and typhoons Gaemi and Prapiroon, which together triggered 1.8 million movements in July. About 754,000 took place in metropolitan Manila, where the floodwaters were as deep as a one-storey building in some areas. Authorities in more than 100 municipalities declared a state of calamity, and schools and airports were closed.

The worst was yet to come when in October and November six back-to-back storms hit the country, three of which made landfall with wind speeds exceed- ing180km/h. Their quick succession made it difficult to disassociate their impacts, including displacement.

​Starting on 21 October, tropical storm Trami and typhoon Kong-Rey hit 17 of the country’s 18 regions and triggered a combined 2.8 million movements. They were followed rapidly by tropical cyclones Yinxing, Toraji, Usagi and Man-yi, which triggered another 2.3 million. Altogether, the storms damaged about 348,000 homes and destroyed about 37,000, impeding people’s recovery and prolonging their displacement.
 
Accommodation was one of IDPs’ most pressing needs in the aftermath of the storms. Thousands of people were living in makeshift shelters in areas declared as “no building zones” and “permanent danger zones” given their high risk of floods, landslides and volcanic activity. As a result, many IDPs were at risk of onward movement by future disasters.
 
Disasters left more than a million people living in displacement across the Philippines at the end of the year, almost four times more than in 2023 and the highest number since data became available in 2019. The figure is in part due to the monitoring efforts of the disaster risk management authorities, which produce comprehensive time-series data on the impacts of disasters, including displacement.
 
Many of the same storms moved north and affected other countries, notably China, where disasters triggered 3.9 million displacements, down from 4.7 million in 2023. Typhoon Yagi, which made landfall as a category five storm in early September, accounted for nearly a third of the total. Most displacements were government-led evacuations in Hainan and Guangdong provinces before Yagi’s arrival. Previous typhoons triggered more displacements than Yagi, but in terms of intensity it was deemed the most powerful autumn storm to strike mainland China in more than 70 years.
 
It was also the strongest storm to hit Vietnam in 30 years, leaving a trail of destruction and triggering 186,000 displacements, particularly in north-east- ern coastal provinces. Yen Bai province registered the largest share with 59,000.
 
Yagi disrupted children’s education, damaged agricultural land and increased the risk of diseases, particularly in evacuation shelters.
 
The storm lost strength as it moved inland and into Myanmar, where it still caused extensive flooding and landslides that triggered 402,000 displacements across eight states and regions. Infrastructure damage, dam bursts and road closures hampered humanitarian access. The country’s overall disaster displacement figure was lower than in 2023 when tropical cyclone Mocha devastated coastal states, but it was still the second highest in a decade.
 
Global Report on Internal Displacement 2025. Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. Norwegian Refugee Council. Geneva, Switzerland.