Natural Disasters
Natural Disasters by Country 2026
World Risk Index
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
5 Countries with the Highest World Risk Index
- As of the 2022 data year, the WorldRiskIndex comprises 100 indicators related to each country’s risk, frequency, and ability to react to natural disasters, including earthquakes, cyclones, coastal floods, internal “riverine” floods, droughts, persistent sea-level rise, and tsunamis.
- Both the absolute number of exposed individuals and their share in the population are included to avoid distortions due to population size variances. For example, sea-level rise threatens 25.56% of Vanuatu’s population, but only 0.56% of China’s population. However, the two countries’ populations are quite different, so in absolute terms, those percentages equate to 65,000 people in Vanuatu and nearly 8,000,000 people in China. Only by considering both data points can accurate exposure levels be calculated.
Natural Disasters as identified by the WorldRiskIndex is based on 100 indicators evaluating each country’s risk and frequency of natural disasters. Natural disasters in this survey include typical natural disasters including droughts, earthquakes, coastal flooding, cycloses, internal or riverine floods, tsunamis and a consistent rise in sea level. To create a consistent comparison between countries, both the number of individuals and their share of the population they make up are included to ensure accurate results.
The Locations With The Highest Risk of Natural Disaster
In general, according to the findings posted by the World Population Review, the two areas the most prone to natural disasters are the Pacific and Asia. The Philippines have the highest risk of natural disaster rating of 46.82. Natural hazards including the infamous typhoon belt, typically involve five to six cyclonic storms yearly. In addition, there are active volcanoes, landslides, tsunamis and destructive earthquakes that impact this area. Indonesia is not far behind in terms of their risk index with a rating of 41.46. This risk of natural disaster includes occasional flooding, volcanoes, earthquakes, and severe droughts. In fact, Indonesia has the most volcanoes of all countries in the world.
The Impact of Natural Disasters
According to the United Nations, a natural disaster includes not only the event itself but the after effects of the event and is specifically explained as “the consequences of events triggered by natural hazards that overwhelm local response capacity and seriously affect the social and economic development of a region.” Natural disasters tend to exacerbate existing issues that are plaguing countries such as economic strain and vulnerabilities of their citizens. In addition to the overall cost of rebuilding, a country that is already weak politically in their government makeup can cause further political instability after a natural disaster.
Increase in Natural Disasters
Overall, the sudden-onset and the frequency of natural disasters are reportedly increasing. Presently, there are 400 natural disasters each year, which impacts 200 million people. To put this number in perspective, this is nearly double the number of natural disasters that took place a mere 20 years ago. In particular, the events that are increasing the most involve hydrometeorological events, meaning droughts, tornados, mudslides, hurricanes, and floods. The cause of the uptick in these particular varieties of natural disasters is blamed on climate change, but regardless of the cause, the risk of these disasters has most certainly increased.
