WASHINGTON — The United Nations refugee agency said Tuesday that an estimated 7.6 million people around the globe were displaced because of conflict or persecution in 2012, including 1.1 million refugees and 6.5 million people who were displaced within their own countries.

The agency’s Global Trends report said that there were an average of 23,000 newly displaced people per day last year, totaling 28.8 million by the end of 2012. The highest levels of internal displacement were in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in Syria, where there are more than 4.5 million people currently displaced within the country.

Even as the number of displaced people rises in Syria, the agency said it remains difficult to get aid into the country, which is in the throes of a civil war that has gone on for more than two years.

“We have convoys of trucks with relief items that actually cross the conflict lines, and obviously these are very dangerous missions,” T. Alexander Aleinikoff, the United Nations deputy high commissioner for refugees, said in an interview. “But we would like to do much more inside the country.”