× Close How High is the Risk to Become Victim of a Natural Disaster: World Risk Index

This choropleth map shows the natural disaster risk for 173 countries based on the 2013 World Risk Report (PDF) published by the Alliance Development Works/Bündnis Entwicklung Hilft (BEH). The report systematically considers a country's vulnerability and exposure to natural hazards such as earthquakes, storms, floods, droughts and sea level rise to determine the risk of becoming a victim of a natural disaster.

The World Risk Index (WRI) is value given as a percentage based on 28 indicators and research data which are globally freely available. The following excerpt of the 2013 report explains the WRI in more detail:

Extreme natural events such as earthquakes, storms, floods, droughts or the future effects of sea level rise need not inevitably result in a disaster for a country. For example, a society which is less susceptible in the field of health and enjoys a high level of prosperity, can draw on experience with natural events, and by adapting to anticipated environmental and climate changes can significantly lower the risk of disaster and crisis and thus minimize the numbers of victims as well as ecological, cultural and economic losses and damage. The WorldRiskIndex shows the respective risk of becoming a victim of disaster pertaining to extreme natural events for 173 countries. The risk is at its highest where a high level of exposure coincides with very vulnerable societies.

In the 2013 report Vanuatu had the highest risk index with 36.43% followed by Tonga 28.23% and the Philippines 27.52%. Qatar has the lowest risk index with 0.10% followed by Malta 0.61% and Barbados 1.16%.

Using the Map

You can see the data value for an individual geographic unit (e .g. country, state, county) by moving the mouse over it.

You can zoom in by clicking on a unit and zoom out by clicking on the same unit or any point on the map outside of units.

Click on the button in the top menu to see the IPython notebook with the code to retrieve and process the data.

Click on the button in the top menu to see the data table used for the maps.

Click on the button to download the currently displayed map as a PNG image.

If you see in the top menu you can choose a color scheme from the drop down displayed on click.

If there is a menu item named Choose Dataset on the left in the top menu, you can choose different data series to display on the map from that drop down.

Credits

This map is created using the d3.geomap JavaScript library.

Published July 29, 2014 • Data Source • CC BY-SA 2014 Ramiro Gómez (@yaph)

