Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional reported late on Monday, citing Consultores 21 research company, that the number of refugees, currently amounting to over four million people, could exceed 4.6 million people by the end of 2018, while Venezuelan total population is currently assessed at 31 million.
The authors of the research specified that less than 800,000 people had left Venezuela during the rule of Hugo Chavez, who headed the country from 1999 to 2013.
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According to the UN International Migration Report, released in December 2017, there are 258 million migrants across the world, which makes 3.4 percent of the total world populations.
Venezuela is suffering from political and economic crisis amid a global slump in oil prices, triggered by sanctions imposed by the United States.