Human Cost

of Disasters 2000-2019

Human Cost of Disasters 2000-2019 was published to mark

the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction on October 13,

drawing on the Emergency Events Database of the Centre for

Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, based at the University

of Louvain, Belgium. The analysis confirms how extreme weather

events have come to dominate the disaster landscape in the 21st century.
In the period 2000 to 2019, there were 7,348 major recorded disaster

events claiming 1.23 million lives, affecting 4.2 billion people (many

on more than one occasion) resulting in approximately US$2.97 trillion

in global economic losses.
This is a sharp increase over the previous twenty years. Between 1980

and 1999, 4,212 disasters were linked to natural hazards worldwide

claiming approximately 1.19 million lives and affecting 3.25 billion

people resulting in approximately US$1.63 trillion in economic losses.
Much of the difference is explained by a rise in climate-related disasters

including extreme weather events: from 3,656 climate-related events

(1980-1999) to 6,681 climate-related disasters in the period 2000-2019.
The last twenty years has seen the number of major floods more than

double, from 1,389 to 3,254, while the incidence of storms grew from

1,457 to 2,034. Floods and storms were the most prevalent events.
The report “The Human Cost of Disasters 2000-2019” also records

major increases in other categories including drought, wildfires and

extreme temperature events. There has also been a rise in geo-physical

events including earthquakes and tsunamis which have killed more

people than any of the other natural hazards under review in this report.