This map, created by Celia Hernando for El Orden Mundial,shows the distribution of stateless persons worldwide in 2023.

Stateless persons are those who do not possess any nationality and therefore have no state whose laws recognise or apply to them. According to UNHCR data, there are 4.4 million registered stateless persons worldwide, although the organisation itself admits that the actual number could be as high as 10 million.

The author uses circles of different sizes to show the countries with the highest number of registered stateless persons, with most of them concentrated in four countries:

• Bangladesh: 952,300
• Ivory Coast: 931,100
• Myanmar: 630,000
• Thailand: 574,200

Another striking case is that of Latvia. Due to the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union, more than a tenth of the inhabitants of the new country became stateless. Latvian legislation, despite not recognising their Latvian nationality, does issue them with special passports under the protection of the country.

Sources

• Orphans of nationality: the map of stateless people around the world