This is a practical guide for producing harmonized statistics on forced displacement and migration in Latin America and the Caribbean, prepared for the 13th Meeting of the Statistical Conference of the Americas (CEA-ECLAC) in November 2025. The guide was developed by a working group coordinated by Honduras’s National Statistics Institute, with technical support from UNHCR, IOM, ECLAC, and participation from 14 national statistical offices across the region plus JIPS and CENTROESTAD. The guide aims to help Latin American and Caribbean countries implement international statistical standards for measuring refugee, IDP, stateless, and migrant populations through their national statistical systems—particularly censuses, household surveys, and administrative records.
The EGRISS recommendations serve as the cornerstone of this document. adapting them to the specific realities of Latin America and the Caribbean. IRIS provides operational definitions and methods for measuring people displaced within their own countries due to conflict, violence, disasters, or development projects, establishing how to identify IDPs in household surveys, track displacement duration and causes, and measure progress toward durable solutions. IRRS sets standards for measuring refugees and asylum-seekers, including those under international protection and in refugee-like situations, with detailed guidance on legal status, causes of flight, and integration indicators. IROSS addresses measurement of stateless persons and those at risk of statelessness, a particularly relevant issue in Latin America where nationality documentation gaps affect many populations.
