Quarterly Updates | October 2025

Dear Alejandra,

We are pleased to share with you our quarterly updates for the period of July to September 2025.

Updates

1023 datasets are now available, of which 50 were newly released this quarter.
Newly released datasets cover the forcibly displaced in the following countries: Afghanistan, Albania, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Ecuador, Ghana, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Republic of Moldova, Niger, Paraguay, Peru, Somalia, South Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.

EXPLORE THE DATA BY REGION

Featured datasets

Lebanon: Vulnerability Assessment of Syrian Refugees 2024

The 2024 Vulnerability Assessment of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon (VASyR) is the twelfth survey conducted in a series that started in 2016. The main objective of the VASyR 2024 is to provide insights about Syrian refugees impacted by the political and economic crisis that hit Lebanon. The VA SyR microdata from previous years are also available on the Microdata Library.

Visit the dataset ‣

©UNHCR/ Ximena Borrazas

Afghanistan: Post-Return Monitoring Survey 2023-2024

©UNHCR/ Oxygen Media Empire

UNHCR’s Post-Return Monitoring (PRM) surveys assess the reintegration of Afghan refugee returnees from Pakistan. Together, the two latest rounds cover over 7,000 households, providing nationally representative insights on protection, services, livelihoods, and coping strategies.

The 2023 round, surveyed returnees from September–December 2023 across 31 provinces, distinguishing between Voluntary Repatriation Form (VRF) holders assisted by UNHCR and non-VRF returnees. The 2024 round, conducted in December, focused on returns from January–June 2024, offering an updated national picture of shelter, food security, education, WASH, social cohesion, and mental health.

Together, these datasets trace returnees’ evolving challenges and progress, guiding targeted support in high-return districts and Priority Areas of Return and Reintegration.

Visit the datasets ‣

Moldova: Socio-Economic Assessment (SEA) 2024

The Moldova Socio-Economic Assessment (SEA) 2024 surveyed Ukrainian refugee households and nearby Moldovan host families between June and September 2024 using probability cluster sampling from the UNHCR proGres database, with every second interview conducted with a host household. Implemented by UNHCR and Ipsos, the dataset covers demographics, access to services, livelihoods, protection, social cohesion, and well-being. It provides a comparative picture of needs and inclusion barriers across refugees and hosts to inform humanitarian programming and policy decisions in Moldova.

Visit the datasets ‣

©UNHCR/ Dmytro Babenko

Research using data from the Library

Gender Gaps, Financial Inclusion and Social Integration in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya

The article “Gender Gaps, Financial Inclusion and Social Integration in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya”, by Afrika Onguko Okello was published in 2025 in the journal Economies. The article investigates the role of financial inclusion and social integration in building refugee self-reliance.

Drawing on the Kenya – Socioeconomic Survey of Refugees in Kakuma 2019, the research constructs indices to measure both dimensions and analyzes their drivers. Access to information, asset ownership, food security, education, and social networks emerge as key factors. Strikingly, female-headed households are more financially included than male-headed ones, while differences in social integration are not significant. The study calls for gender-sensitive financial services, digital inclusion through mobile technology, and targeted livelihood initiatives to enhance resilience and long-term self-reliance among refugees.

Consult the research ‣

Other news from the Curators

This quarter, the UNHCR Microdata Library reached a major milestone with over 1,000 datasets now available for licensed and open access. Covering all regions and a wide range of thematic areas, the Microdata Library has become one of the most comprehensive global repositories of anonymized humanitarian microdata.

Looking ahead, the Microdata Library will continue to expand and innovate. Building on advances in differential privacy, UNHCR is preparing to release synthetic registration datasets with strong privacy safeguards and high analytical value. To support knowledge exchange, UNHCR, together with key humanitarian data partners, will organize a webinar in November 2025. The agenda will include an overview of UNHCR’s microdata curation approach and the newly published Microdata Curation Handbook, a technical segment on differential privacy and synthetic data, reflections on how curation has shaped operational data use, and a partner roundtable on anonymization practices across agencies. This milestone marks both the scale achieved and a new frontier in responsible data innovation.

Share your feedback – UNHCR Microdata Library User Survey 2025

We would like to invite you to take part in the UNHCR Microdata Library User Survey 2025. Your feedback will help us improve the UNHCR Microdata Library and ensure it better meets your needs.

Microdata Library Stats

Did you know that the Library now has 79 datasets from Afghanistan ?

Interested in learning more about data and forced displacement? UNHCR is setting up a quarterly data newsletter to inform the general public about the latest developments in data on the forcibly displaced. Join our UNHCR data mailing list →

The Microdata Library is part of UNHCR's Global Data Service. The purpose of the quarterly updates is to share the latest developments of UNHCR's Microdata Library and its impact on research and knowledge.

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If you have feedback or would like to get involved in the project, please contact: microdata@unhcr.org

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