2018

11,804 68.5 million
315 Dead People 132 billion
people affected
Reported US$ economic
disasters damage

An opportunity
to prepare
Executive Summary
In 2018, there were 315 natural disaster events recorded with 11,804 deaths, over 68
million people affected, and US$131.7 billion1 in economic losses across the world. The
burden was not shared equally as Asia suffered the highest impact and accounted for
45% of disaster events, 80% of deaths, and 76% of people affected. Globally, Indonesia
recorded nearly half the total deaths (47%), while India recorded the highest number of
people affected (35%). Earthquakes were the deadliest type of disaster accounting for 45%
of deaths, followed by flooding at 24%. Flooding affected the highest number of people,
accounting for 50% of the total affected, followed by storms which accounted for 28%.
Given Asia’s large land mass, higher population relative to other continents, and multiple
hazard risks, the results are not surprising.

In relation to the previous decade (2008-2017), in people). Furthermore, flooding in Nigeria cost 300 lives
2018 there were fewer disasters compared to the annual and affected nearly two million people, while in Japan,
average of 348 events, fewer deaths compared to the heavy rains triggered the deadliest floods since 1982,
annual average of 67,572, fewer number of people killing 230 people. In terms of economic losses, storms
affected compared to the annual average of 198.8 million were the costliest type of disaster. In the United States,
people affected, and lower economic losses compared hurricanes Florence and Michael cost $14 billion and $16
to the annual average of $166.7 billion. This decrease is billion respectively, while Asia, China, India, Japan, and
due to the lack of massive disaster events such as the the Philippines faced extensive damage from multiple
2010 earthquake in Haiti (222,500 deaths); the 2015/2016 storms. The costliest storm was typhoon Jebi in Japan
drought in India (330 million people affected); and the 2011 ($12.5 billion), while for human impacts, multiple storms
Japan earthquake and tsunami ($210 billion in damages). in the Philippines took over 300 lives in total, and affected
The deadliest events in 2018 occurred in Indonesia with over 10 million people.
the earthquake in September leaving 4,340 people dead
A number of disasters also occurred in countries with
or missing, followed by another earthquake in August
ongoing conflicts. Somalia, which commonly experiences
which left 564 dead or missing.
drought, suffered flooding which affected 700,000
2018 was a standout year for wildfires (10 events) and people, adding to the challenges faced by the population
volcanic activity (7 events). The Attica Fires in Greece killed due to conflict. In Afghanistan, in addition to the civil
an estimated 100 people, making it the deadliest wildfire war, which was the deadliest conflict in 2018,2 drought
recorded in Europe within EM-DAT records. In the United affected 3.6 million people and displaced hundreds of
States, the California wildfire season was the deadliest thousands. Additionally, droughts in Kenya (3  million
and costliest on record, with Camp Fire killing 88 people, people affected), Central America (over 2.5 million people
the highest wildfire death toll in the country since the affected), Madagascar (over 1.2 million people affected),
1940s. Additionally, Camp Fire caused an estimated $16.5 and elsewhere continued to affect those dependent on
billion in damage, making it the costliest wildfire event agriculture or facing water shortages.
ever recorded. As well, in 2018, volcanic activity resulted
Overall, notable features of the year were: intense
in more deaths than have occurred in the previous 18
seismic activity in Indonesia; a string of disasters in
years combined. In June, the Volcán de Fuego Eruption in
Japan; floods in India; and a very eventful year in volcanic
Guatemala killed over 400 people and affected over 1.7
activity and wildfires. These events occupied headlines
million, while in December, the eruption of Anak Krakatau
throughout the year, despite an ongoing trend of lower
in Indonesia triggered a tsunami that killed over 400
death tolls from previous years continuing into 2018. The
people on the islands of Sumatra and Java.
lower death tolls potentially demonstrate the efficacy of
Floods have affected more people than any other type of improved standards of living and disaster management.
disaster in the 21st century, including in 2018 (127 events). However, it is critical to avoid complacency towards major
The August flash flooding in India’s Kerala state was by gaps in data collection and reporting, and in resilience,
far the largest flood event of the year, with 504 dead, and particularly for weather-related disasters considering the
two-thirds of the state’s residents affected (over 23 million anticipated impacts of climate change.

1 Economic loss figures were adjusted with the current US dollar value.
2 Data on conflict death tolls from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED)
 Occurence of natural disasters
Figure 1

Number of disasters by
continent and top 10 countries
France China

Europe 7 India
22 Myanmar
22 5
United 48 Afgha-
nistan
Japan
States
6 7
19
Viet Nam

7
Africa Philippines
Americas 46 10
65
Asia Indonesia

141 15
Argentina
5 Oceania
15
Figure 2

Occurrence by disaster type: 2018

compared to 2008-2017 annual average
348
2008 to 2017 < 315 
in 2018

Drought Earthquake Extreme Flood Landslide Mass Storm Volcanic Wildfire

temperature movement activity
(dry)

2018 16 20 26 127 13 1 95 7 10 2018

2008-
2017 17 26 20 153 19 1 101 4 9
2008-
2017
 Human impact: total deaths 4
Figure 3

Share of deaths (%)

by continent
Europe
1.9 Asia
79.8
9.6
Americas
50.2
8.1
35.4 Africa
8.7 Oceania
1.6
2018 4.5 0.2
2008-
2017

Figure 4

Number of deaths by disaster type: 2018

compared to 2008-2017 annual average
67,572
2008 to 2017 > 11,804
in 2018

Drought Earthquake Extreme Flood Landslide Mass Storm Volcanic Wildfire

temperature movement activity
(dry)

2018 0 5 264 536 2 879 275 17 1 734 878 221 2018

2008-
2017 2 004 35 197 7 388 5 039 1 034 24 16 762 44 80
2008-
2017

Table 1 Indonesia Earthquake / Tsunami 4 340

Top 5 Indonesia Earthquake 564
mortality
India Flood 504

Indonesia Volcano / Tsunami 453

Guatemala Volcano 425

4  Persons confirmed as dead and persons missing and presumed dead

 Human impact: total affected 5
Figure 5

Share of affected (%)

by continent
Asia
Europe 76.3
0.1
0.3
79.8
Americas
9.8
10.5 Africa
12.6
Oceania

2018 9.2 1.2

2008- 0.3
2017

Figure 6

Number of affected (million) by disaster type:

2018 compared to 2008-2017 annual average
198.8
2008 to 2017 > 68.5
in 2018

Drought Earthquake Extreme Flood Landslide Mass Storm Volcanic Wildfire

temperature movement activity
(dry)

2018 10.8 1.4 0.3 34.2 <0.1 0

19.4 1.9 0.3 2018

2008- 2008-
2017 73.9 8.3 9.0 73.1 0.3
<0.1
33.9 0.2 0.1
2017

Table 2 India Flood 23.2 million

Top 5 total Philippines Typhoon Mangkut (Ompong) 3.8 million
affected
Afghanistan Drought 3.6 million

Kenya Drought 3.0 million

China Storm 2.5 million

5  Sum of injured, homeless and affected

 Economic Losses
Figure 7

Share of economic losses (%)

by continent
Europe
2.3 Asia
42.1
6.6
Americas 45.1
53.0
Africa
44.1 1.5 Oceania
1.0
2018 0.6
2008-
3.5
2017

Figure 8

Economic losses (billion US$) by disaster type:

2018 compared to 2008-2017 annual average
167
2008 to 2017 > 132 
in 2018

Drought Earthquake Extreme Flood Landslide Mass Storm Volcanic Wildfire

temperature movement activity
(dry)

2018 9.7 7.1 0 19.7 0.9 0 284.7

70.8 0.8 22.8 2018

2008- 2008-
2017 8.3 45.3 3 36.3 0.3 69.6 3.8 2017
<0.1 <0.1

Table 3 USA Wildfire 16.5 billion

Top 5 USA Hurricane Michael 16 billion
economic
losses USA Hurricane Florence 14 billion

Japan Typhoon Jebi 12.5 billion

Japan Flood 9.5 billion

Georeferenced disasters
Globally, 3.9 billion people, or about half the worldwide population, were potentially
exposed to natural disasters in 2018. When counting if a region was affected by
multiple disasters, this number jumps to 10.7 billion people.

Map 1
Canada
Administrative
unit 1 zones*
United States affected by storms
of America and relative
occurrence rates
from 2000 to 2018
Mexico Bahamas in the Caribbean,
Cuba Dom. Rep.
Northern and
Belize Jamaica Haiti
Puerto Rico
Central America.
Honduras
Guatemala
El Salvador Nicaragua
Trinidad & Tobago
Costa Rica
Panama

In 2018, storms affected 19.4 million people around the world. Among them,
17.1 million people were located in Asia, accounting for 88 % of the global total. To
evaluate the burden of this type of disaster, the number of people affected has
been compared to the people living in the area exposed to storms, identified as the
population potentially exposed (PPE). In Asia, the number of PPE to storms was 2.1 billion
people for 2018. Hence, the share of directly affected people among the PPE is at 0.8 %
for Asia, which is not distant from the value for the Americas at 0.6 %. However, local
extremes exist in certain areas, such as Laos (26.9%) and the Philippines (15.5%).

Russia
Map 2

Kazakhstan Administrative
Mongolia
unit 1 zones*
DPRK affected by storms
Afghanistan South Korea Japan and relative
China
occurrence rates
Pakistan
Nepal from 2000 to 2018
Bangladesh
India
in Asia (South,
Myanmar Philippines South-East, East).
Thailand
Vietnam

Sri Lanka
Malaysia

* Administrative units are defined according to the Global Administrative Unit Layers by the FAO
About EM-DAT
Since 1988, CRED has maintained the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT).
Initially created with the support of the WHO and the Belgian government, the
main objectives of EM-DAT are to inform humanitarian action at the national
and international levels in order to improve rational decision-making in disaster
preparedness, provide objective data for assessing communities’ vulnerability to
disasters and help policy-makers set priorities.

EM-DAT contains core data on the occurrence and Acknowledgements: The data used in this report is
effects of more than 23,000 natural and technological maintained through the long-term support of the
disasters from 1900 to the present day. It is compiled US Agency for International Development’s Office
from various sources (UN agencies, the US Office of of Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA). This
Foreign Disaster Assistance, national governments, report was put together at CRED by Regina Below,
the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Valentin Wathelet and Nima Yaghmaei. We are also
Crescent Societies, NGOs, insurance companies, grateful to MARDI for the layout and printing.
research institutes and the media) according to a
We encourage the free use of the contents of this
priority list.
report with appropriate and full citation:
CRED defines a disaster as “a situation or event CRED. Natural Disasters 2018. Brussels: CRED; 2019.
that overwhelms local capacity, necessitating a This document is available at: https://emdat.be/
request at the national or international level for sites/default/files/adsr_2018.pdf
external assistance; an unforeseen and often sudden
Centre for Research on the Epidemiology
event that causes great damage, destruction and
of Disasters (CRED)
human suffering”. Only natural disasters (biological
Institute Health and Society UClouvain
excluded) are included in this publication. For a
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disaster to be entered into the database, at least
1200 Brussels, Belgium
one of the following criteria must be fulfilled:
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• 10 or more people reported killed www.emdat.be
• 100 or more people reported affected
• declaration of a state of emergency
• call for international assistance

Since 2014, EM-DAT also georeferences natural

disasters, adding geographical values to numeric
data which is essential for deeper analysis.

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