Global Profiles for Internal Displacements (GPID)

Internal displacements due to conflict and disasters are a major driver of human mobility worldwide. While the total numbers of displacement events – by cause, location, and time – are well documented, global estimates of the demographic and socio-economic profiles of impacted communities have been largely missing. This lack of disaggregated data on variables such as age, sex, income, education, health, and land use, has limited our understanding of the diverse vulnerabilities and needs of displacement-affected populations – complicating the work of decision makers tasked with allocating resources effectively.

The Global Profiles for Internal Displacement (GPID) dataset aims to bridge this gap. By combining geolocated displacement data from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) with high-resolution global maps of demographic and socio-economic indicators, the dataset provides consistent estimates of key characteristics of populations in locations impacted by internal displacement – annually since 2018 at global, regional, and national level.

Access the report

Learn more about the methodology behind the dataset and explore detailed findings for different variables, displacement causes, and world regions in the report Displaced and Diverse.

What do these data tell us?

Here are some key global-level takeaways:

• Disproportionate vulnerability: Across populations in areas impacted by internal displacement, 88% have a larger share of children than the global average, 93% have lower income, 66% have less education, and 61% have shorter life expectancies.
• Strong demographic disparities: Populations in areas of drought displacement tend to be young (average age: 18.0 years), more male (51.8% men), and include many children (43.1%). At the opposite end of the spectrum, populations in wildfire displacement areas are older (average age: 35.7 years), more female (50.5% women), and include fewer children (19.3%).
• Deep socio-economic divides: Populations in areas of drought displacement face overall much lower levels of annual income (average $2,400), education (3.0 years of schooling), and life expectancy (61.0 years) compared to those in wildfire-affected areas ($79,000, 12.6 years, 79.8 years).
• Different risks for different livelihoods:
  • Storm and flood displacements most heavily impact farming populations, with 44% and 36%, respectively, of land in relevant displacement areas being used for crops.
  • Drought displacements disproportionally affect pastoral communities, with 50% of lands used for grazing.
  • Conflict and wildfire displacement most strongly impact urban populations, with built-up land making up 60% and 39%, respectively, of lands.
• Patterns are shifting over time: Populations impacted by displacement are more vulnerable today than in the past. The share of children in populations across displacement areas has increased from 28% in 2018 to 40% in 2024. In parallel, average income, education, and life expectancy of affected populations have all been overall decreasing.

List of variables

The dataset includes the following variables for populations in displacement areas – available annually, for all displacement causes (conflict and 12 disaster types), and at global, regional, and national level:

Download the data

The complete dataset, including metadata and conditions of use, is available on the HDX repository.

Slide deck

A deck of presentation slides with visualisations of key results from GPID is available as PDF here and as editable PPT here.