More Than 4 Million Refugees Have Now Fled Syria, UN Says

More than 4 million Syrians have fled abroad since the 2011 outbreak of civil war, the largest number from any crisis in almost 25 years, the United Nations said Thursday

Syrian refugee children walk at an informal refugee camp in the area of Zahrani, south of the Lebanese capital Beirut, on July 9, 2015. Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images

ISTANBUL—More than 4 million Syrians have fled abroad since the 2011 outbreak of civil war, the largest number from any crisis in almost 25 years, the United Nations said Thursday.

A recent wave of people leaving Syria and an update of Turkish statistics confirmed the tragic milestone, according to the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR. The agency said 7.6 million additional people have been displaced from their homes within Syria by the fighting.

The 4 million refugees are the most to flee a conflict since the Afghan civil war forced 4.6 million out of their country beginning in 1992.

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