Christopher Black/International Federation, Iraq

Chapter 8 - summary
Disaster data: key trends and statistics

Last year saw more disasters reported than any year of the preceding decade. Fortunately, 2002’s disasters appeared less deadly than before – 24,500 people were reported killed, compared to the decade’s average of 62,000 per year. But they had more impact than ever. A colossal 608 million people were affected – three times the annual average from 1992-2001. Drought in India alone affected 300 million people during 2002. These figures do not even include data on those killed or affected by war, conflict-related famine or disease. Reliable global data on these more complex emergencies simply do not exist – but some studies of mortality in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo present death rates that dwarf those reported in the tables that follow (see Chapter 7).

Disasters continue to target the world’s poorest and least developed. Of those killed in 2002, just 6 per cent lived in countries of high human development (HHD). While countries of low human development (LHD) reported the fewest natural disasters during the decade, their death toll is by far the highest. When related to the numbers of reported disasters, an average of 555 people died per disaster in LHD nations, compared to 133 in countries of medium human development (MHD) and 18 people in HHD nations.

While deaths remain low from disasters in highly developed countries, financial costs are very high. Of globally reported disaster damage last year (US$ 27 billion), more than two-thirds occurred in HHD countries. LHD countries reported just 0.15 per cent of total damage. Over the course of the decade, the average cost of damage from each natural disaster in HHD nations was US$ 477 million, compared to US$ 149 million in MHD nations and US$ 61 million in LHD nations. The high financial value attached to infrastructure in developed countries is the main reason for these differences. The enormous financial losses related to infrastructure in LHD countries would be better revealed by a comparison based on losses to gross domestic product (GDP) rather than losses expressed in dollars.

Weather-related disasters continue to rise, from an annual average of 200 between 1993-1997, to 331 per year between 1998-2002. Across the decade, famine remained by far the deadliest disaster, killing at least 275,000 people (nearly half of all reported fatalities) – although this is probably a gross underestimate. Floods, however, affected more people across the globe (140 million per year on average) than all other natural or technological disasters put together.

Comparing the decades 1983-1992 and 1993-2002, reported global deaths from natural and technological disasters have fallen by 38 percent. However, numbers of people reported affected have risen by 54 per cent over the same period.

Jonathan Walter, editor of the World Disasters Report, contributed this introduction.