Even in peak years with high-impact events, the death toll has not exceeded 500,000 since the mid-1960s. In most years fewer than 20,000 die (and in the most recent decade, this has often been less than 10,000). In recent decades we have seen a substantial decline in deaths. What we see is that in the early-to-mid 20th century, the annual death toll from disasters was high, often reaching over one million per year. This shows the estimated annual number of deaths from disasters from 1900 onwards from the EMDAT International Disaster Database. In the visualization shown here we see the long-term global trend in natural disaster deaths. Those at low incomes are often the most vulnerable to disaster events: improving living standards, infrastructure and response systems in these regions will be key to preventing deaths from natural disasters in the coming decades. We know from historical data that the world has seen a significant reduction in disaster deaths through earlier prediction, more resilient infrastructure, emergency preparedness, and response systems. Low-frequency, high-impact events such as earthquakes and tsunamis are not preventable, but such high losses of human life are. All of these events pushed global disasters deaths over 200,000 – more than 0.4% of deaths in these years. But we also see the devastating impact of shock events: the 1983-85 famine and drought in Ethiopia the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami Cyclone Nargis which struck Myanmar in 2008 and the 2010 Port-au-Prince earthquake in Haiti. What we see is that in many years, the number of deaths can be very low – often less than 10,000, and accounting for as low as 0.01% of total deaths. In the visualizations shown here we see the annual variability in the number and share of deaths from natural disasters in recent decades. This represents around 0.1% of global deaths. If we look at the average over the past decade, approximately 45,000 people globally died from natural disasters each year. The number of deaths from natural disasters can be highly variable from year-to-year some years pass with very few deaths before a large disaster event claims many lives.

Wildfire acres burned in the United States.

Share of local governments that adopt and implement local disaster risk reduction strategies in line with national strategies.

Share of US land area with unusually low winter temperatures.

Share of US land area with unusually high summer temperatures.

Share of US land area with unusually high annual precipitation.

Share of US land area that experienced extreme one-day precipitation.

Score of adoption and implementation of national strategies for managing disaster risk.

Rate of deaths and missing persons due to natural disasters.

Precipitation anomaly in the United States.

Power Dissipation Index (PDI) of North Atlantic cyclones.

People displaced internally by natural disasters.

Number of wildfires in the United States.

Number of significant volcanic eruptions.

Number of recorded natural disaster events.

Number of local governments that adopt disaster risk reduction strategies.

Number of known significant earthquakes.

Number of deaths from volcanic eruptions.

Number of deaths from natural disasters by type.Number of deaths from natural disasters.Number left homeless from natural disasters.News coverage of disasters, by continent.Near-Earth asteroids discovered over time.Largest confirmed impact craters on Earth by diameter.Hurricane landfalls in the United States.How many deaths does it take for a disaster to receive news coverage?.How many deaths does it take for a disaster in different continents to receive news coverage?.Global weather disaster losses as a share of GDP.Global reported natural disasters by type.Global number affected by natural disasters.Global economic losses from disasters as a share of GDP.Global disaster losses as a share of GDP.Global damage costs from natural disasters.Fatality rates in the US due to weather events.

Fatality rates due to lightning in the US.Economic damage by natural disaster type.Direct economic loss attributed to disasters.Direct disaster economic loss as a share of GDP.Decadal average: Number of deaths from natural disasters.Decadal average: Death rates from natural disasters.Deaths from natural disasters as a share of total deaths.Death rate from natural disasters IHME, crude.Death rate from natural disasters IHME, age-standardized.Average acres burned per wildfire in the United States.Annual Heat Wave Index in the United States.Adoption and implementation of policies to reduce disaster risk.Accumulated cyclone energy of North Atlantic hurricanes.

Recent earthquake