Maps
Interactive: Natural Disasters Around the World Since 1900
Interactive: Natural Disasters Around the World Since 1900
While natural disasters are inevitable and commonplace within the context of human history, that doesn’t lessen our collective shock when they occur.
Here are just a few of the natural disasters that made headlines last year:
- Haiti was rocked by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake that killed more than 2,000 people Tens of thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed.
- Super typhoon, Rai, killed 375 people in the Philippines. The storm brought winds as high as 120 mph (193 kph)
- Landslides in China’s Henan province kill more than 300 people
- Historic flooding results in more than 200 fatalities in Germany and Belgium
- Hurricane Ida battered the Gulf Coast, killing 91 people across nine U.S. states
And these are just some of the many events that rounded out a long list of disasters in 2021.
The interactive dashboard above was created by Our World in Data, using data came from EM-DAT, the International Disaster Database. The database aims to rationalize decision making for disaster preparedness and to provide an objective base for vulnerability assessment.
Total Deaths by Natural Disaster in the Last Decade (2010-2019)
In the past decade, approximately 60,000 people per year died from natural disasters. This represents 0.1% of total deaths worldwide.
The chart below breaks down the total deaths by type of natural disaster in the last decade.
Type of Natural Disaster | Total Deaths (2010-2019) |
---|---|
Earthquakes | 267,480 |
Extreme Temperatures | 74,244 |
Floods | 50,673 |
Storms | 27,632 |
Droughts | 20,120 |
Landslides | 10,109 |
Volcanic Activity | 1,363 |
Wildfires | 881 |
Mass Movement | 100 |
TOTAL | 452,602 |
Historically, droughts and floods were the most fatal natural disasters.
However, deaths from these events are relatively low now compared to earthquakes, which are by far the most deadly natural disaster in modern times. Over the past decade, earthquakes have killed 267,480 people worldwide, followed by extreme temperatures, which killed 74,244.
The Decline of Deaths from Natural Disasters
Is planet Earth really more dangerous than ever? Let’s take a look at what the data says:
The chart above shows a sharp decline in deaths from natural disasters over the last 100 years.
In the 1920s, the world averaged over 500,000 deaths from natural disasters per year. These were caused by several outlier events: for example, a Tokyo earthquake in 1923 killed over 146,000 people, and drought and famine killed 3 million people in China between 1928 and 1930.
In the 1930s, the number dropped below the 500,000 deaths per year average, but a number of events still put their thumb on the scale. In 1931, floods in China killed over 3.7 million people, and in 1935, an earthquake killed up to 60,000 people in Pakistan, and so on.
But luckily over time, the decadal average has dropped to fewer than 100,000 deaths per year. And if we consider the rate of population growth, then the decline over the past century has been even more dramatic.
Our awareness of natural disasters has increased dramatically along with global access to real-time information, and thankfully, these occurrences are less deadly than they once were.
How to Navigate this Interactive Visualization
The dashboard above is packed with useful views and data. Some of the features to highlight are:
The Top Navigation
– Type of disaster: The options include: drought, earthquakes, floods, storms, volcanoes, extreme temperatures
– Impact: The impact of the natural disaster is measured in: deaths, injuries, affected, homeless, and more
– Timespan: The selection allows for average by decade and year
– Per capita: The impact is measured in per capita terms instead of total numbers
The Left Bar
– Filter the data by country and region
– Filter the data by type of disaster and related effects (e.g. deaths, economic impacts)
The Bottom Tabs
– Bar Chart: All data selected is displayed in a bar chart format
– Map: Data is shown by country in a heat map. Click “Play” at the bottom left to view data for different decades
– Table: The same data that is displayed in the visualization is shown in table format
– Sources: All the data sources and calculations are clearly displayed in this tab
– Download: This option allows downloading the image in PNG, SVG, and full data in CSV
This article was published as a part of Visual Capitalist's Creator Program, which features data-driven visuals from some of our favorite Creators around the world.
Misc
Mapped: Asia’s Population Patterns by Density
We visualize Asia’s population patterns to see where 4.6 billion people, or two-thirds of the world’s population, actually live.
A Map of Asia’s Population Patterns by Density
This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.
Nearly 60% of the world’s 8 billion population lives in Asia: a vast continent sprawling over 44 million km², home to sprawling megacities, high-altitude deserts, the world’s biggest plateau, and impenetrable rainforests.
We visualize Asia’s population patterns using data from WorldPop—a research group based out of the University of Southampton that tracks population growth and movement across the globe.
A spike on the map denotes higher population density.
Other figures in this article are sourced from World Population Review (population numbers) and the World Bank (area).
Ranked: Asia’s Countries By Population
Immediately the map visualizes at impressive scale a rather well-known fact: that India and China together account for 35% of the world’s population just by themselves.
Pakistan (ranked 4th in population) and Bangladesh (ranked 5th) together account for another 400 million people.
The role of the Himalayas in this distribution is understated: the mountain range is a source of ten major rivers, flowing to India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and China, providing fresh water to 1.3 billion people in its watershed.
Rank | Country | Population | Area |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 🇮🇳 India | 1,437,982,661 | 3,287,260 km² |
2 | 🇨🇳 China | 1,425,317,720 | 9,562,910 km² |
3 | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | 279,119,626 | 1,916,907 km² |
4 | 🇵🇰 Pakistan | 243,772,596 | 796,100 km² |
5 | 🇧🇩 Bangladesh | 174,173,808 | 147,570 km² |
6 | 🇷🇺 Russia | 144,101,449 | 17,098,250 km² |
7 | 🇯🇵 Japan | 122,833,540 | 377,974 km² |
8 | 🇵🇭 Philippines | 119,106,224 | 300,000 km² |
9 | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | 99,308,524 | 331,340 km² |
10 | 🇮🇷 Iran | 89,626,661 | 1,745,150 km² |
11 | 🇹🇷 Turkey | 86,127,389 | 785,350 km² |
12 | 🇹🇭 Thailand | 71,863,281 | 513,120 km² |
13 | 🇲🇲 Myanmar | 54,849,472 | 676,590 km² |
14 | 🇰🇷 South Korea | 51,756,284 | 100,430 km² |
15 | 🇮🇶 Iraq | 46,225,266 | 435,050 km² |
16 | 🇦🇫 Afghanistan | 43,026,322 | 652,860 km² |
17 | 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia | 37,473,929 | 2,149,690 km² |
18 | 🇺🇿 Uzbekistan | 35,522,965 | 448,924 km² |
19 | 🇾🇪 Yemen | 34,982,136 | 555,000 km² |
20 | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | 34,562,556 | 330,411 km² |
21 | 🇳🇵 Nepal | 31,136,781 | 147,180 km² |
22 | 🇰🇵 North Korea | 26,220,850 | 120,540 km² |
23 | 🇸🇾 Syria | 24,010,759 | 185,180 km² |
24 | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | 23,942,522 | 36,197 km² |
25 | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | 21,933,155 | 65,610 km² |
26 | 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan | 19,764,158 | 2,724,900 km² |
27 | 🇰🇭 Cambodia | 17,071,236 | 181,040 km² |
28 | 🇯🇴 Jordan | 11,368,898 | 89,318 km² |
29 | 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan | 10,448,636 | 86,600 km² |
30 | 🇹🇯 Tajikistan | 10,277,238 | 141,379 km² |
31 | 🇦🇪 UAE | 9,569,300 | 98,648 km² |
32 | 🇮🇱 Israel | 9,272,228 | 22,070 km² |
33 | 🇱🇦 Laos | 7,736,681 | 236,800 km² |
34 | 🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan | 6,807,948 | 199,950 km² |
35 | 🇹🇲 Turkmenistan | 6,573,631 | 488,100 km² |
36 | 🇸🇬 Singapore | 6,119,203 | 728 km² |
37 | 🇵🇸 Palestine | 5,494,963 | 6,025 km² |
38 | 🇱🇧 Lebanon | 5,257,501 | 10,450 km² |
39 | 🇴🇲 Oman | 4,692,824 | 309,500 km² |
40 | 🇰🇼 Kuwait | 4,337,703 | 17,820 km² |
41 | 🇬🇪 Georgia | 3,720,477 | 69,700 km² |
42 | 🇲🇳 Mongolia | 3,480,040 | 1,564,116 km² |
43 | 🇦🇲 Armenia | 2,777,979 | 29,743 km² |
44 | 🇶🇦 Qatar | 2,730,864 | 11,490 km² |
45 | 🇧🇭 Bahrain | 1,494,745 | 790 km² |
46 | 🇹🇱 Timor-Leste | 1,374,025 | 14,870 km² |
47 | 🇨🇾 Cyprus | 1,260,138 | 9,250 km² |
48 | 🇧🇹 Bhutan | 790,918 | 38,390 km² |
49 | 🇲🇻 Maldives | 518,765 | 300 km² |
50 | 🇧🇳 Brunei | 454,869 | 5,770 km² |
Note: Russia and Georgia are typically regarded as European countries for cultural reasons, despite their geographic locations. They have been included in the dataset for context only.
Other countries that are covered by red: Indonesia (ranked 4th in population), Japan (ranked 7th), and the Philippines (8th), are all some of Asia’s most populous countries.
They also have some of the world’s densest cities:
- Manila: 42,857 people/km²
- Mumbai: 28,195 people/km²
- Karachi: 24,000 people/km²
- Jakarta: 14,464 people/km²
Tokyo and Beijing—despite being some of the world’s largest cities by population—record lower densities in comparison, helped by their much larger administrative areas.
But when sorted by average population density across the entire country, the ranks look a little bit different.
Ranked: Asia’s Countries By Population Density
The city state of Singapore is the densest country in Asia, with more than 8,000 people/km². Far behind it, the similarly sized in area Bahrain has one-sixth the population and ranks second (1,892/km²) in Asia’s densest countries.
Rank | Country | Population Density |
---|---|---|
1 | 🇸🇬 Singapore | 8,405 people/km2 |
2 | 🇧🇭 Bahrain | 1,892 people/km2 |
3 | 🇲🇻 Maldives | 1,729 people/km2 |
4 | 🇧🇩 Bangladesh | 1,180 people/km2 |
5 | 🇵🇸 Palestine | 912 people/km2 |
6 | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | 661 people/km2 |
7 | 🇰🇷 South Korea | 515 people/km2 |
8 | 🇱🇧 Lebanon | 503 people/km2 |
9 | 🇮🇳 India | 437 people/km2 |
10 | 🇮🇱 Israel | 420 people/km2 |
11 | 🇵🇭 Philippines | 397 people/km2 |
12 | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | 334 people/km2 |
13 | 🇯🇵 Japan | 325 people/km2 |
14 | 🇵🇰 Pakistan | 306 people/km2 |
15 | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | 300 people/km2 |
16 | 🇰🇼 Kuwait | 243 people/km2 |
17 | 🇶🇦 Qatar | 238 people/km2 |
18 | 🇰🇵 North Korea | 218 people/km2 |
19 | 🇳🇵 Nepal | 212 people/km2 |
20 | 🇨🇳 China | 149 people/km2 |
21 | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | 146 people/km2 |
22 | 🇹🇭 Thailand | 140 people/km2 |
23 | 🇨🇾 Cyprus | 136 people/km2 |
24 | 🇸🇾 Syria | 130 people/km2 |
25 | 🇯🇴 Jordan | 127 people/km2 |
26 | 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan | 120 people/km2 |
27 | 🇹🇷 Turkey | 110 people/km2 |
28 | 🇮🇶 Iraq | 106 people/km2 |
29 | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | 105 people/km2 |
30 | 🇦🇪 UAE | 97 people/km2 |
31 | 🇦🇲 Armenia | 94 people/km2 |
32 | 🇰🇭 Cambodia | 94 people/km2 |
33 | 🇹🇱 Timor-Leste | 92 people/km2 |
34 | 🇲🇲 Myanmar | 81 people/km2 |
35 | 🇧🇳 Brunei | 79 people/km2 |
36 | 🇺🇿 Uzbekistan | 79 people/km2 |
37 | 🇹🇯 Tajikistan | 73 people/km2 |
38 | 🇦🇫 Afghanistan | 66 people/km2 |
39 | 🇾🇪 Yemen | 63 people/km2 |
40 | 🇬🇪 Georgia | 54 people/km2 |
41 | 🇮🇷 Iran | 51 people/km2 |
42 | 🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan | 34 people/km2 |
43 | 🇱🇦 Laos | 33 people/km2 |
44 | 🇧🇹 Bhutan | 21 people/km2 |
45 | 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia | 17 people/km2 |
46 | 🇴🇲 Oman | 15 people/km2 |
47 | 🇹🇲 Turkmenistan | 13 people/km2 |
48 | 🇷🇺 Russia | 8 people/km2 |
49 | 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan | 7 people/km2 |
50 | 🇲🇳 Mongolia | 2 people/km2 |
Note: Russia and Georgia are typically regarded as European countries for cultural reasons, despite their geographic locations. They have been included in the dataset for context only.
Bangladesh, with 1,180 people/km², has the rare distinction of being a top five Asian country by both population and average population density.
Meanwhile, India is 9th in population density (437 people/km²), its large landmass bringing down the average considerably.
Similarly, China nearly breaks into the top 20 with a population density of 149 people/km². Despite its vast population, the country’s immense size presents a challenge, particularly in its western regions, which are largely inhospitable to substantial human settlement due to the presence of mountains, the Tibetan plateau, and two deserts.
At the bottom of the rankings, Mongolia (2 people/km²) and Kazakhstan (7 people/km²) are some of the least dense countries in the world.
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