The Iraq Crisis in Numbers

John Holmes, the undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs at the UN, recently wrote in the International Herald Tribune that “one of the world's largest and fastest-growing humanitarian crises is also among the least known: Iraq.”

Indeed, Iraqis now represent the third-largest displaced population in the world, and according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), their size is growing at a rate of 50,000 per month. Here is the Iraq crisis by the numbers:

Internally Displaced Persons: 2 million (UNHCR)

Refugees in Syria and Jordan: 2.2 million (UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR)

Refugees fleeing monthly: 50,000 (UNHCR)

Refugees (total): 4.2 million (UNHCR)

Iraqi refugee children: 500,000 (UNHCR)

Iraqi refugee children attending school: 60,000 (UNHCR)

Iraqi children with learning impediments from climate of fear: 92% (Association of Psychologists of Iraq)

Child malnutrition rate: 28% (UNHCR)

Iraqis living in "absolute poverty": 43% (NGO Coordination Committee in Iraq)

Hours of electricity in Baghdadis' homes per day: 2 (NCCI)

Iraqis who have access to clean water: 30% (NCCI)

Iraqis who cannot regularly buy enough to eat: 4 million/15% of the population (UNHCR). (Within this 4 million, only 60% currently have access to government-supplied rations.)

Amount of Iraqi refugees the U.S. pledged to resettle in fiscal year 2007: 2,500 (State Dept.)

Refugees resettled in US in June: 63 (IHT)

Refugees resettled in US in July: 57 (IHT)

Iraqi refugees accepted by U.S. to date in fiscal year 07: 190 (IHT)

Iraqi refugees processed by UNHCR: 160,000 (UNHCR)

Iraqi Refugees UNHCR has processed and referred to US: 8,000+ (UNHCR)

UNHCR appeal for large-scale assistance
program for Iraqis in Jordan and Syria: $123 million (UNHCR)

Amount of UNHCR appeal funded
by U.S. (traditionally 30%): $37 million (State Dept.)

International Organisation for Migration (IOM) appeal: $85 million (VOA News)

IOM appeal funded thus far: $23 million (ReliefWeb)