More than 2 million people – an average of 43,000 per year – have been killed by natural disasters in the Asia-Pacific region since 1970, according to the latest United Nations’ figures.
In 2016, disasters caused about 5,000 deaths and economic losses worth $77 billion in the region, home to 60 percent of the world’s population and its most disaster-prone area.
Here are some key facts about disasters in Asia-Pacific:
- The region accounts for 57 percent of the global death toll from natural disasters since 1970. The principal causes were earthquakes and storms, followed by floods.
- A person in Asia-Pacific is five times more likely to be hit by a natural disaster than someone living in other regions.
- The region lost $1.3 trillion in assets between 1970 and 2016 due to natural disasters, and the cost of the damage has been rising.
- Floods, droughts and storms have affected 6.3 billion people in Asia-Pacific since 1970, compared to 0.9 billion in the rest of the world.
- Natural disasters displaced 60.4 million people globally between 2013 and 2015 – more than half were in Asia-Pacific, including in the Philippines (15 million people), China (13.1 million) and India (9.2 million).
- In 2016, 4,987 people died in Asia-Pacific due to disasters, the majority in floods (3,250) which hit Bangladesh, China, North Korea, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Storms accounted for 880 deaths and extreme temperature 336.
- Droughts affected 13.4 million people in the region in 2016, mainly in China and Cambodia.
Original source: Thomas Reuters.
Posted on 10 October 2017
