The Riskiest Places to Live

Risk, from a mathematical perspective, is the probability of an event multiplied by its potential impact.

The World Risk Report, which is published each year, looks at the risks of natural disasters in this way. The model used in the report takes into consideration the exposure of countries to natural disasters, but also their ability to cope and deal with such events. The end result is a World Risk Index that ranks 171 countries based on the risk that natural disasters can pose.

The below graphic comes from The Guardian, where data from the report was visualized. For the interactive version of the graphic that allows each country data point to be highlighted, go to original article.

Here are the riskiest places to live in the world:

Image courtesy of: The Guardian

North America and Europe generally rank as significantly low on the list. The United States had a risk level of 3.87% while Canada had a level of 3.14%.

The Netherlands was notably higher than most developed countries with exposure levels similar to Bangladesh. However, because of preparedness, the risk is reduced to 8.29%. That makes it the 50th riskiest country overall.

The least risky country was Qatar, which has no natural disasters on record.

The riskiest place to live was Vanuatu, a small island nation about 1,090 miles (1,750km) off of the east coast of northern Australia. The country has active volcanoes, and it also regularly gets hit by cyclones and earthquakes. Cyclone Pam devastated much of Vanuatu in 2015, causing extensive damage to all the islands and 11 deaths.