Just in case you’re in the middle of planning a move or trip abroad, I thought I would bring you some information today on the cities and countries most vulnerable to natural disasters.
Cheery, huh? Well, in the interest of your safety, you should know what you’re getting into, right? First, we looked at the top 10 countries for natural disasters that are tracked by the International Disaster Database (IDD), which has been accumulating data for the past 114 years. The IDD looks at the most common catastrophes so insurance companies can use the data to prepare their risk analyses.
Of all the countries in the world, the U.S. ranks #1 for natural disasters, but #2 China has had a rough time of it over the last several years, logging 42 natural disasters in 2013 alone. The rest of IDD’s top 10 includes, in descending order, the Philippines, India, Japan, Australia, France, Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany.
Rankings are based on the IDD’s eight disaster categories: Flood, earthquake, tropical cyclone, epidemic, storm, land mass movement, extreme temperature and wildfire. Less than 400 natural disasters occur worldwide annually.
The giant global reinsurer, Swiss Re, also compiled a list, but for major metropolitan areas around the globe. They studied disaster data for 616 urban areas that house 1.7 billion people, which is about one-quarter of the earth’s population. The company looked at cities most at risk for storm, storm surge, river flood, earthquake and tsunami disasters.
Of the top 10 cities most at risk, eight are Asian cities. Numero uno is the sprawling Tokyo-Yokahama metropolitan area, with over 57 million people at risk from these disaster events. Manila is #2 and the Pearl River Delta (Hong Kong and contiguous cities) is third. Rounding out the top 10, in descending order, are Osaka-Kobe, Japan; Jakarta, Indonesia; Nagoya, Japan; Kolkata, India; Shanghai, China; Los Angeles; and, Tehran, Iran.
Is there any place safe in Asia? Try Singapore. The island nation is devoid of natural disasters, except for occasional flooding.
