Natural Disasters Deaths

People killed in natural disasters by country by year

About this dataset

How much do natural disasters cost us? In lives, in dollars, in infrastructure? This dataset attempts to answer those questions, tracking the death toll and damage cost of major natural disasters since 1985. Disasters included are storms ( hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones ), floods, earthquakes, droughts, wildfires, and extreme temperatures

How to use the dataset

This dataset contains information on natural disasters that have occurred around the world from 1900 to 2017. The data includes the date of the disaster, the location, the type of disaster, the number of people killed, and the estimated cost in US dollars

Research Ideas

• An all-in-one disaster map displaying all recorded natural disasters dating back to 1900.
• Natural disaster hotspots - where do natural disasters most commonly occur and kill the most people?
• A live map tracking current natural disasters around the world

Acknowledgements

License

See the dataset description for more information.

Flash flooding is the top weather-related killer, responsible for an average of 140 deaths per year across the United States. Although precipitation forecasting and understanding of flash flood causes have improved in recent years, there are still many unknown factors that play into flash flooding. Despite having accurate and timely rainfall reports, some river basins simply do not respond to rainfall as meteorologists might expect. The Flash Flood Potential Index (FFPI) was developed in order to gain insight into these “problem basins”, giving National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologists insight into the intrinsic properties of a river basin and the potential for swift and copious rainfall runoff.The goal of the FFPI is to quantitatively describe a given sub-basin’s risk of flash flooding based on its inherent, static characteristics such as slope, land cover, land use and soil type/texture. It leverages both Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as well as datasets from various sources. By indexing a given sub-basin’s risk of flash flooding, the FFPI allows the user to see which subbasins are more predisposed to flash flooding than others. Thus, the FFPI can be added to the situational awareness tools which can be used to help assess flash flood risk.

"Disaster data for countries along the belt and road, mainly from the global disaster database.The records information of disaster database are from the United Nations, government and non-governmental organizations, research institutions and the media. It's documented in detail such as the country where the disaster occurred, the type of disaster, the date of the disaster, the number of deaths and the estimated economic losses. This study extracts the natural disaster records of the countries along the One Belt And One Road line one by one from the database, and finally forms the disaster database of 9 major disasters of the 65 countries. The natural disaster records collected can be roughly divided into nine categories, including: floods, landslides, extreme temperatures, storms, droughts, forest fires, earthquakes, mass movements and volcanic activities. From 1900 to 2018, a total of 5,479 disaster records were recorded in countries along the One Belt And One Road. From 2000 to 2015, there were 2,673 disaster records. On this basis, the natural disasters of the countries along the belt and road are investigated from four aspects, including disaster frequency, death toll, disaster-affected population and economic loss assessment. Overall, since 1900, a total of 5479 natural disasters have occurred in countries along the One Belt And One Road, resulting in about 19 million deaths and economic losses of about 950 billion us dollars. Among them, the most frequent occurrence is flood and storm; the biggest economic losses are floods and earthquakes; the most affected people are flood and drought; drought and flooding are the leading causes of death

Social vulnerability is defined as the disproportionate susceptibility of some social groups to the impacts of hazards, including death, injury, loss, or disruption of livelihood. In this dataset from Climate Ready Boston, groups identified as being more vulnerable are older adults, children, people of color, people with limited English proficiency, people with low or no incomes, people with disabilities, and people with medical illnesses. Source:The analysis and definitions used in Climate Ready Boston (2016) are based on "A framework to understand the relationship between social factors that reduce resilience in cities: Application to the City of Boston." Published 2015 in the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction by Atyia Martin, Northeastern University.Population Definitions:Older Adults:Older adults (those over age 65) have physical vulnerabilities in a climate event; they suffer from higher rates of medical illness than the rest of the population and can have some functional limitations in an evacuation scenario, as well as when preparing for and recovering from a disaster. Furthermore, older adults are physically more vulnerable to the impacts of extreme heat. Beyond the physical risk, older adults are more likely to be socially isolated. Without an appropriate support network, an initially small risk could be exacerbated if an older adult is not able to get help.Data source: 2008-2012 American Community Survey 5-year Estimates (ACS) data by census tract for population over 65 years of age.Attribute label: OlderAdultChildren: Families with children require additional resources in a climate event. When school is cancelled, parents need alternative childcare options, which can mean missing work. Children are especially vulnerable to extreme heat and stress following a natural disaster.Data source: 2010 American Community Survey 5-year Estimates (ACS) data by census tract for population under 5 years of age.Attribute label: TotChildPeople of Color: People of color make up a majority (53 percent) of Boston’s population. People of color are more likely to fall into multiple vulnerable groups aswell. People of color statistically have lower levels of income and higher levels of poverty than the population at large. People of color, many of whom also have limited English proficiency, may not have ready access in their primary language to information about the dangers of extreme heat or about cooling center resources. This risk to extreme heat can be compounded by the fact that people of color often live in more densely populated urban areas that are at higher risk for heat exposure due to the urban heat island effect.Data source: 2008-2012 American Community Survey 5-year Estimates (ACS) data by census tract: Black, Native American, Asian, Island, Other, Multi, Non-white Hispanics.Attribute label: POC2Limited English Proficiency: Without adequate English skills, residents can miss crucial information on how to preparefor hazards. Cultural practices for information sharing, for example, may focus on word-of-mouth communication. In a flood event, residents can also face challenges communicating with emergency response personnel. If residents are more sociallyisolated, they may be less likely to hear about upcoming events. Finally, immigrants, especially ones who are undocumented, may be reluctant to use government services out of fear of deportation or general distrust of the government or emergency personnel.Data Source: 2008-2012 American Community Survey 5-year Estimates (ACS) data by census tract, defined as speaks English only or speaks English “very well”.Attribute label: LEPLow to no Income: A lack of financial resources impacts a household’s ability to prepare for a disaster event and to support friends and neighborhoods. For example, residents without televisions, computers, or data-driven mobile phones may face challenges getting news about hazards or recovery resources. Renters may have trouble finding and paying deposits for replacement housing if their residence is impacted by flooding. Homeowners may be less able to afford insurance that will cover flood damage. Having low or no income can create difficulty evacuating in a disaster event because of a higher reliance on public transportation. If unable to evacuate, residents may be more at risk without supplies to stay in their homes for an extended period of time. Low- and no-income residents can also be more vulnerable to hot weather if running air conditioning or fans puts utility costs out of reach.Data source: 2008-2012 American Community Survey 5-year Estimates (ACS) data by census tract for low-to- no income populations. The data represents a calculated field that combines people who were 100% below the poverty level and those who were 100–149% of the poverty level.Attribute label: Low_to_NoPeople with Disabilities: People with disabilities are among the most vulnerable in an emergency; they sustain disproportionate rates of illness, injury, and death in disaster events.46 People with disabilities can find it difficult to adequately prepare for a disaster event, including moving to a safer place. They are more likely to be left behind or abandoned during evacuations. Rescue and relief resources—like emergency transportation or shelters, for example— may not be universally accessible. Research has revealed a historic pattern of discrimination against people with disabilities in times of resource scarcity, like after a major storm and flood.Data source: 2008-2012 American Community Survey 5-year Estimates (ACS) data by census tract for total civilian non-institutionalized population, including: hearing difficulty, vision difficulty, cognitive difficulty, ambulatory difficulty, self-care difficulty, and independent living difficulty. Attribute label: TotDisMedical Illness: Symptoms of existing medical illnesses are often exacerbated by hot temperatures. For example, heat can trigger asthma attacks or increase already high blood pressure due to the stress of high temperatures put on the body. Climate events can interrupt access to normal sources of healthcare and even life-sustaining medication. Special planning is required for people experiencing medical illness. For example, people dependent on dialysis will have different evacuation and care needs than other Boston residents in a climate event.Data source: Medical illness is a proxy measure which is based on EASI data accessed through Simply Map. Health data at the local level in Massachusetts is not available beyond zip codes. EASI modeled the health statistics for the U.S. population based upon age, sex, and race probabilities using U.S. Census Bureau data. The probabilities are modeled against the census and current year and five year forecasts. Medical illness is the sum of asthma in children, asthma in adults, heart disease, emphysema, bronchitis, cancer, diabetes, kidney disease, and liver disease. A limitation is that these numbers may be over-counted as the result of people potentially having more than one medical illness. Therefore, the analysis may have greater numbers of people with medical illness within census tracts than actually present. Overall, the analysis was based on the relationship between social factors.Attribute label: MedIllnesOther attribute definitions:GEOID10: Geographic identifier: State Code (25), Country Code (025), 2010 Census TractAREA_SQFT: Tract area (in square feet)AREA_ACRES: Tract area (in acres)POP100_RE: Tract population countHU100_RE: Tract housing unit countName: Boston Neighborhood

On March 10, 2023, the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center ceased collecting and reporting of global COVID-19 data. For updated cases, deaths, and vaccine data please visit the following sources:Global: World Health Organization (WHO)U.S.: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)For more information, visit the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.This feature layer contains the most up-to-date COVID-19 cases for the US and Canada. Data sources: WHO, CDC, ECDC, NHC, DXY, 1point3acres, Worldometers.info, BNO, state and national government health departments, and local media reports. This layer is created and maintained by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at the Johns Hopkins University. This feature layer is supported by the Esri Living Atlas team and JHU Data Services. This layer is opened to the public and free to share. Contact Johns Hopkins.IMPORTANT NOTICE: 1. Fields for Active Cases and Recovered Cases are set to 0 in all locations. John Hopkins has not found a reliable source for this information at the county level but will continue to look and carry the fields.2. Fields for Incident Rate and People Tested are placeholders for when this becomes available at the county level.3. In some instances, cases have not been assigned a location at the county scale. those are still assigned a state but are listed as unassigned and given a Lat Long of 0,0.Data Field Descriptions by Alias Name:Province/State: (Text) Country Province or State Name (Level 2 Key)Country/Region: (Text) Country or Region Name (Level 1 Key)Last Update: (Datetime) Last data update Date/Time in UTCLatitude: (Float) Geographic Latitude in Decimal Degrees (WGS1984)Longitude: (Float) Geographic Longitude in Decimal Degrees (WGS1984)Confirmed: (Long) Best collected count of Confirmed Cases reported by geographyRecovered: (Long) Not Currently in Use, JHU is looking for a sourceDeaths: (Long) Best collected count for Case Deaths reported by geographyActive: (Long) Confirmed - Recovered - Deaths (computed) Not Currently in Use due to lack of Recovered dataCounty: (Text) US County Name (Level 3 Key)FIPS: (Text) US State/County CodesCombined Key: (Text) Comma separated concatenation of Key Field values (L3, L2, L1)Incident Rate: (Long) People Tested: (Long) Not Currently in Use Placeholder for additional dataPeople Hospitalized: (Long) Not Currently in Use Placeholder for additional data