At least 4.5 million people are recognised by no country as its nationals, and the true number is likely much higher because many stateless groups are never counted; most are members of minorities, and 24 countries still bar mothers from passing on their nationality on equal terms with fathers.
Written from the sources listed below, not independently peer-reviewed.
In how many countries do nationality laws still deny mothers the same right as fathers to pass their nationality to their children?
4.5 million
Stateless people reported
Stateless people known to governments and UNHCR at the end of 2025. UNHCR says the true number is likely much higher because many stateless populations are unregistered and invisible to official statistics.
Data year 2025. Source: UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, 2026
24
Countries where mothers cannot pass on nationality equally
Countries whose laws deny mothers who are nationals from birth the same right as fathers to confer nationality on their children, as of March 2026. Counting naturalised mothers and adopted children, 28 countries do not grant women equal rights.
Data year 2026. Source: UNHCR, 2026
More than 500,000
People granted or confirmed a nationality since 2014
Result of state measures during UNHCR's #IBelong campaign and Global Action Plan to End Statelessness 2014–2024, as reported in June 2024. Over the same period, 14 states joined the 1954 Convention and 17 the 1961 Convention.
Data year 2024. Source: UNHCR Executive Committee, Standing Committee, 90th meeting, 2024
Unit: countries
Two reported points from UNHCR's June 2024 update to its Standing Committee. The rise reflects better reporting, not more statelessness, and approximately half of all countries still lacked data on stateless people. The Global Alliance to End Statelessness reports that 101 states submitted data for the end of 2024 (not plotted, different source).
UNHCR's #IBelong campaign and its Global Action Plan to End Statelessness ran from 2014 to 2024. States granted or confirmed nationality for more than 500,000 people in that decade, yet UNHCR still reported 4.4 million people stateless or of undetermined nationality at the end of 2022 and noted that the real number is much higher. Work continues through a Global Alliance to End Statelessness, which UNHCR began setting up in 2022 ahead of a high-level segment on statelessness in October 2024.
The Rohingya are the largest stateless group: 1.8 million people, 41% of the stateless population reported worldwide at the end of 2025. About 1.2 million of them live as refugees in Bangladesh after fleeing persecution in Myanmar.
Source: UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, 2026Reported statelessness is highly concentrated: 7 in 10 of the stateless people UNHCR counts live in just four countries, Myanmar, Thailand, Côte d'Ivoire and Bangladesh.
Source: UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, 2026Of the 24 countries that deny mothers equal rights to pass on nationality, 12 are in the Middle East and North Africa, 5 in Asia and the Pacific, 5 in sub-Saharan Africa and 2 in the Americas.
Source: UNHCR, 2026Most of the world's known stateless populations belong to minority groups. Children are at particular risk when their parents are stateless, unknown or unable to pass on a nationality, or when they are born abroad in a country whose law gives them no nationality.
Source: Global Alliance to End Statelessness, 2024Instead of one “percent solved” score, DO GOOD rates three separate dimensions. A problem can have mature solutions that still reach too few people. These ratings are an editorial reading of the sources on this page, not a measured index.
Has the situation improved in the real world?
LowUNHCR still reported 4.5 million stateless people at the end of 2025, and only 46,100 acquired a nationality during that year. Because the total depends on which countries report, it cannot show whether the real number is falling.
How mature and validated are the available solutions?
HighThe legal remedies are well established: equal nationality rights for mothers, safeguards so that children are not born stateless, naturalisation and statelessness determination procedures. Countries such as Sierra Leone, Madagascar and Liberia have changed their laws to let mothers confer nationality.
How widely are effective solutions actually used?
LowIn 2024 only 51% of UN member states were party to the 1954 Convention and 41% to the 1961 Convention, 21 countries had statelessness determination procedures and 24 still kept gender-discriminatory nationality laws.
Approximately half of all countries, including many with known stateless populations, report no data on stateless people, and UNHCR describes its own figure as an undercount.
The Global Alliance has grown to 190 members including 28 states, and in Thailand more than 100,000 stateless people gained nationality or permanent residence in the year to June 2026. But the reported total has not fallen, and some countries, such as Kuwait in 2024, have narrowed women's ability to pass on nationality.
A stateless person is someone whom no country considers a national under its law. Without a nationality, people are often unable to go to school, see a doctor, work legally, open a bank account, rent housing, marry or travel, and the exclusion can last a lifetime, from birth to the lack of a death certificate. UNHCR reported 4.5 million stateless people at the end of 2025, but says the true number is likely much higher because many stateless populations are unregistered and invisible to official statistics. Approximately half of all countries, including many with known stateless populations, have no data on stateless people at all.
Statelessness is mostly caused by laws and policies, not by chance. Most known stateless populations belong to minority groups excluded on grounds of ethnicity, religion or language; the largest group, the Rohingya of Myanmar, numbers 1.8 million people, 41% of the reported global total. Gaps between countries' nationality laws, new borders and the loss or deprivation of nationality also leave people stateless. Gender discrimination is a major cause of statelessness in childhood: in 24 countries a mother cannot pass her nationality to her children on the same terms as a father, so a child can be left stateless when the father is stateless, unknown, has died or cannot or will not complete the paperwork.
Statelessness is about nationality in law, which makes it different from missing documents. A person can hold a birth certificate and still be stateless, and a person without any papers may still be a national of a country. The legal-identity challenge on this site covers birth registration and ID; this page covers people whom no state recognises as its own. Four elements shape the figures:
The legal definition
The 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons defines a stateless person as someone not considered a national by any state under the operation of its law. What counts is how nationality law is applied in practice, not whether a person has documents.
Undocumented is not the same as stateless
A missing birth registration can put a child at risk of statelessness, for example when parentage or place of birth cannot be proven, but most undocumented people do have a nationality. Fixing documentation and fixing nationality need different remedies.
What UNHCR counts
UNHCR compiles statistics that states share on stateless people and people of undetermined nationality, together with its own data. The global figure is the sum of what is reported, so it is a minimum and depends on which countries report. Data were submitted by 101 states for the end of 2024.
Overlap with displacement
About 1.6 million stateless people are also forcibly displaced, most of them Rohingya. In UNHCR's total of people it protects or assists, they are counted only once, as displaced, so they are not added a second time as stateless.
What works
Allowing mothers to pass on nationality on the same terms as fathers removes a direct cause of childhood statelessness. Sierra Leone (2017), Madagascar (2017) and Liberia (2022) are among the countries that have made this change, and Nepal and Oman eased some restrictions in 2025.
Limits
24 countries still deny mothers equal rights. Reforms can be partial or slow to take effect: Malaysia's December 2024 constitutional amendment had not come into force by March 2026 and does not apply to children born before it, and Kuwait narrowed access for children of Kuwaiti mothers in 2024.
What works
Nationality laws can give a child the nationality of the country of birth when the child would otherwise be stateless. 13 countries had adopted provisions to ensure that children are not born stateless by 2024, and 17 states joined the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness after 2014, bringing it to 80 states parties.
Limits
Only 41% of UN member states are party to the 1961 Convention. Safeguards help children born after the reform but do little for adults who are already stateless, and families still need to prove the birth and the parents' status.
What works
Governments can open simplified paths to nationality for stateless groups who have lived in the country for generations. Under a 2024 Cabinet resolution, Thailand enabled more than 100,000 stateless people to gain nationality or permanent residence in a single year, and a 2026 decree in Syria allows eligible Kurdish community members to acquire nationality.
Limits
Permanent residence improves security but is not the same as nationality. Programmes depend on political will, can be reversed, and need people to produce documents they may not have.
What works
Statelessness determination procedures let a person be formally recognised as stateless, which opens access to the protection of the 1954 Convention and can lead to a nationality. 21 countries had set up such procedures by 2024, and 98 states were party to the 1954 Convention.
Limits
Recognition as stateless does not by itself give a nationality, and in most countries no such procedure exists. People who do not know about it or fear contact with authorities stay outside it.
What works
Registering every birth records where a child was born and who the parents are, the facts a child needs to prove a claim to nationality. Missing birth registration is one of the conditions that put children at risk of statelessness.
Limits
Registration documents facts but does not confer nationality: a child whose birth is registered can still be stateless if the law gives them no nationality. It works only alongside nationality law reform.
Promising, but not proven at scale. The stage shows how far each approach has come; it is not a recommendation.
The International Recommendations on Statelessness Statistics, adopted by the UN Statistical Commission in 2023 and published by Eurostat in March 2026, encourage countries to include statelessness in censuses, household surveys and administrative data, and to count people without a recognised nationality, not only those formally recognised as stateless. Few countries have yet applied them.
Launched in 2024 after the #IBelong campaign, the Global Alliance to End Statelessness brings states, regional intergovernmental organisations and other members together to work on ending statelessness. By June 2026 it had 190 members, including 28 states and 12 regional intergovernmental organisations; whether it speeds up legal reform is not yet measured.
Law reforms often apply only to children born afterwards. In Malaysia, a 2025 High Court settlement allows children born abroad to Malaysian mothers before the constitutional amendment to apply for citizenship. Such remedies are case-specific and their reach is not yet known.
Coordination gap
24 countries deny mothers equal rights to pass nationality to their children at birth, and 28 if naturalised mothers and adopted children are included. Each such law can leave a child stateless when the father cannot or will not pass on his nationality.
Coordination gap
Most known stateless people belong to minority groups excluded on grounds of ethnicity, religion or language. Resolving their status requires political decisions that governments often avoid, and the largest group, the Rohingya, has been displaced by persecution.
Knowledge gap
Approximately half of all countries, including many with known stateless populations, report no data on stateless people, so the global figure is a minimum and progress is hard to track.
Coordination gap
After a decade of campaigning, 98 states (51% of UN member states) were party to the 1954 Convention and 80 (41%) to the 1961 Convention in 2024, so in many countries stateless people have no specific legal protection.
Implementation gap
Only 21 countries had statelessness determination procedures in 2024. Elsewhere, stateless people usually have no formal way to be recognised as such and to claim the protection meant for them.
Implementation gap
Adopted reforms do not always reach people: Malaysia's 2024 amendment was not in force by March 2026, and Kuwait's 2024 amendments removed a route to nationality for some children of Kuwaiti mothers.
Unresolved questions, not vetted breakthroughs. Answering any of them would change what is possible.
UNHCR reports 4.5 million but says the real number is much higher. Can census and survey methods based on the new international recommendations produce credible estimates without exposing stateless people to harm?
Some countries have ended gender discrimination or resolved statelessness among minorities while others have not moved for decades. Which mix of domestic advocacy, international pressure and political change explains the difference?
Programmes such as Thailand's give many stateless people permanent residence rather than nationality at once. How many later become nationals, and how does their access to rights compare with that of citizens?
UNHCR warns that climate-related displacement increases the risk of statelessness. How large is that risk, and which groups of people forced across borders are most likely to be affected?
Check whether your country is party to the 1954 and 1961 Conventions, whether it has a procedure to identify stateless people and whether mothers and fathers can pass on nationality equally.
Consider giving to or volunteering with organisations that help people prove or acquire a nationality, preferably ones that publish how many cases they resolve.
Ask your elected representatives to support equal nationality rights for women, safeguards against childhood statelessness and accession to the statelessness conventions, at home and in foreign policy.
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UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, published 2026
Annual statistical report (June 2026) with the number of stateless people reported at the end of 2025 (4.5 million), the Rohingya share, the four countries with most reported stateless people, overlap with displacement and the 46,100 people who acquired a nationality in 2025.
UNHCR (via Refworld), published 2026
Annual review, as of March 2026, of countries whose nationality laws deny women equal rights to confer nationality on children (24 countries; 28 including naturalised and adoptive parents), with regional breakdown, recent reforms and setbacks, and how such laws cause statelessness.
UNHCR Executive Committee, Standing Committee, 90th meeting (10 June 2024), published 2024
UNHCR's stocktaking at the end of the #IBelong campaign: nationality granted or confirmed for more than 500,000 people since 2014, accessions to the 1954 and 1961 Conventions, gender-discriminatory laws, determination procedures, countries reporting data in 2014 and 2022, and plans for the Global Alliance.
UNHCR Standing Committee, 96th meeting (16 June 2026), published 2026
Latest UNHCR update on statelessness: Global Alliance membership (190 members including 28 states), Thailand's nationality and residence pathway, Syria's 2026 nationality decree.
Global Alliance to End Statelessness, published 2024
Explainer on the legal definition of a stateless person, its consequences, its main causes and who is most at risk, including the distinction between being undocumented and being stateless.
Global Alliance to End Statelessness, published 2026
Explains the statistical recommendations adopted by the UN Statistical Commission in 2023 and published by Eurostat in March 2026, and notes that data from 101 states were submitted to UNHCR for the end of 2024.
DO GOOD International (2026). Ending Statelessness. Global Challenges. Updated October 15, 2026. https://www.dogood.world/challenges/statelessness
For figures, please cite the original sources listed above.