Disastrous Economic Losses

Natural disasters around the globe since 1900 have resulted in $7 trillion economic losses and about 8 million deaths.

17:37 22 April 2016

Scientists from Germany has found that natural disasters around the globe has resulted in economic losses amounting to roughly $7 trillion since 1900 and about 8 million deaths.

 

The calculation was based on a database of 35,000 events that include floods, droughts, storms, volcano eruptions, wildfires, and earthquakes. The results, which the group said should assist governments with crisis planning and response, were presented at the European Geosciences Union meeting.

 

Over the 1900-2015 period, about 40per cent of economic losses are due to flooding. Earthquake accounted for about 25per cent while storms take about 20per cent. 12per cent was due to drought, 2per cent to wildfire and under 1per cent to volcanic eruptions.

 

James Daniell, a civil/structural engineer and geophysicist, said: "If we just take data from 1960, we see a change in the trend; we see that storms are having a bigger piece of the pie,"

 

"About 30% of all losses are due to storms and storm surge these days. Earthquake as well is still around the 26% mark."

 

On mortality, the researchers’ study found that total deaths from natural disasters remain constant at about 50,000 people per year on average.