How many Iraqi and Syrian refugees are in the United States?

In October last year, I needed numbers on Iraqi and Syrian refugees living in the United States for a research project I was working on.

The U.S. Department of State website featured that information and included which states these refugees settled in and how their numbers compared to other U.S.-based refugees from other parts of the world.

As of January 25, 2017 at 11:06 p.m., the State Department website that provided that information is no longer available. Its absence comes on the heels of the Trump administration’s plan to ban legal immigration from a handful of Muslim countries, including Iraq and Syria. (Incidentally, as of January 26, 2017 at 9:35 a.m., 2015 refugee arrival figures are available on the Department of Health and Human Services website for the Office of Refugee Resettlement.)

Another important reference point now deleted is the following quote from the State Department website:

“The United States will welcome 110,000 refugees in Fiscal Year 2017. This is a 57 percent increase over FY 2015 and is consistent with the belief that all nations must do more to help the record number of innocent civilians who are uprooted, cast adrift, and desperate to find peace, safety and the chance to rebuild their lives.”

Thankfully, I saved the information (below). We will need facts for the forthcoming conversation about the U.S. refugee assistance program.

Here are my charts on refugee arrivals to the U.S. in Fiscal Year 2016:

Source: US Department of State; https://m.state.gov/md262776.htm; original webpage no longer available as of January 25, 2017; originally accessed October 24, 2016. All data reflects figures as of September 30, 2016.