Editor’s Note: This story first published on Sept. 11, 2015. It was updated with more recent figures on April 18, 2016.
(CNN) —
Imagine every man, woman and child leaving home in 29 states, mostly in the U.S. West and Midwest. That’s everyone west of Ohio and Kentucky and north of Texas, all the way to California.
The 158 million people in those states make up the same share of the U.S. population – 49% – as the proportion of Syrians that have fled carnage there.
The war in Syria is so hellish and unrelenting that more people have left that country than any other in recent years. One of every five displaced persons in the world is Syrian.
Here’s a look at where those Syrians have gone.
Protests against the government in Syria in 2011 soon devolved into chaotic war. The fighting and later rise of ISIS had forced 10.6 million people from home by late 2015 – about half of Syria’s pre-war population.
01:55 - Source: CNN
The refugee crisis ... from the Syrian war to now
Most Syrians who have left their homeland registered as refugees with the United Nations. Three in four Syrian refugees did that in Turkey, Lebanon or Jordan, according to UN figures from February 2016.
The number of Syrians seeking safety in Europe more than doubled from 2014 to 2015. Many left Turkey and other countries for Europe to ask for asylum, a status that allows someone to live and work legally in another country.
Worldwide, 59.5 million people are on the move as refugees or displaced people within their home countries. That population would be enough to make them citizens of the world’s 24th biggest country.
Humanity has never seen such displacement. Ever.
“Wars, conflict and persecution have forced more people than at any other time since records began to flee their homes and seek refuge and safety elsewhere,” the United Nations said in June.
At least 15 wars and conflicts are to blame – in Africa, the Mideast and Asia.
Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos
PHOTO:
Santi Palacios/AP
A woman cries after being rescued in the Mediterranean Sea about 15 miles north of Sabratha, Libya, on July 25, 2017. More than 6,600 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea in January 2018, according to the UN migration agency, and more than 240 people died on the Mediterranean Sea during that month.
Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos
PHOTO:
Antonio Masiello/NurPhoto via ZUMA Press
Refugees and migrants get off a fishing boat at the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey in October 2015.
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos
PHOTO:
ARIS MESSINIS/AFP/Getty Images
Migrants step over dead bodies while being rescued in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Libya in October 2016. Agence France-Presse photographer Aris Messinis was on a Spanish rescue boat that encountered several crowded migrant boats. Messinis said the rescuers counted 29 dead bodies -- 10 men and 19 women, all between 20 and 30 years old. "I've (seen) in my career a lot of death," he said. "I cover war zones, conflict and everything. I see a lot of death and suffering, but this is something different. Completely different."
Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos
PHOTO:
DOGAN NEWS AGENCY/EPA/LANDOV
Authorities stand near the body of 2-year-old Alan Kurdi on the shore of Bodrum, Turkey, in September 2015. Alan, his brother and their mother drowned while fleeing Syria. This photo was shared around the world, often with a Turkish hashtag that means "Flotsam of Humanity."
Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos
PHOTO:
Matt Cardy/Getty Images
Migrants board a train at Keleti station in Budapest, Hungary, after the station was reopened in September 2015.
Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos
PHOTO:
GEORGI LICOVSKI/EPA/LANDOV
Children cry as migrants in Greece try to break through a police cordon to cross into Macedonia in August 2015. Thousands of migrants -- most of them fleeing Syria's bitter conflict -- were stranded in a no-man's land on the border.
Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos
PHOTO:
Alexis Malagaris/Samos Divers Association via AP
The Kusadasi Ilgun, a sunken 20-foot boat, lies in waters off the Greek island of Samos in November 2016.
Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos
PHOTO:
Srdjan Stevanovic/Getty Images
Migrants bathe outside near a makeshift shelter in an abandoned warehouse in Subotica, Serbia, in January 2017.
Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos
PHOTO:
PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP/Getty Images
A police officer in Calais, France, tries to prevent migrants from heading for the Channel Tunnel to England in June 2015.
Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos
PHOTO:
PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP/Getty Images
A migrant walks past a burning shack in the southern part of the "Jungle" migrant camp in Calais, France, in March 2016. Part of the camp was being demolished -- and the inhabitants relocated -- in response to unsanitary conditions at the site.
Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos
PHOTO:
Vadim Ghirda/AP
Migrants stumble as they cross a river north of Idomeni, Greece, attempting to reach Macedonia on a route that would bypass the border-control fence in March 2016.
Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos
PHOTO:
Petros Giannakouris/AP
In September 2015, an excavator dumps life vests that were previously used by migrants on the Greek island of Lesbos.
