The data used for this story was obtained from the Immigration and Refugee Board through an Access to Information request. It includes 89,517 claims that were finalized, or concluded, between Jan. 1, 2013 and Sept. 30, 2017. This data refers to refugee claimants, or individuals who have made a claim in Canada for refugee protection. It does not include government- or privately sponsored refugees. The data refers to IRB decisions and not necessarily individuals. The Immigration and Refugee Board sometimes makes more than one decision for the same individual, if the case is sent back to the protection division from the appeal division or the federal court. The country and cause of persecution refers to what a claimant initially tells an immigration or border services officer when they first make a claim. The information can change as a claim progresses through the system and those changes are not captured in this data. Acceptance rates are calculated by dividing the number of positive claims by the total number of positive and negative claims. It does not include abandoned, withdrawn, or administrative claims, or cases in which the claimant died before the case could be decided. The location field sometimes refers to where the hearing was held and sometimes refers to where the claimant is based. As such it should be used with caution. IRB adjudicators are physically located in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal. If the location field contains a city that is not one of these, it likely refers to where the claimant was based. Regarding claim types, please note that the statistics in this report are not necessarily indicative of the basis for a decision on a claim for the following reasons: · In some cases there is more than one claim type. · Claim type categories are generic and are the “best fit” for each case given the available categories. · If the claim type changes during the adjudication of the case, the new claim type is not entered in the IRB’s case tracking system. · Each case before the IRB is decided on its own merits by independent decision-makers. · The decision on a claim may be based on factors other than the claim type.