Data from the EM-DAT Database show that over 7,000 natural disasters occurred in the last 20 years (1995-2015) worldwide, affecting a total of 4.3 billion people with damages estimated at US$ 2.3 trillion. In Africa, 1,145 natural disasters including droughts, extreme temperatures, floods, storms, wildfire, earthquakes (including tsunamis), mass movements, volcanic activity and land- slides occurred during 1995 and 2015 with 308 million people affected and damages of US$ 17 billion. The most frequent type of disaster was floods (64%) followed by storms (14%) and droughts (13%). However, droughts accounted for 80% of the affected people. The total damage was US$ 17 billion. In Asia, there were 2,977 natural disasters in the last 20 years with floods (42%) and storms (28%) being the most common ones. Earthquakes accounted for 13% and droughts together with extreme temperatures for 7% of all disasters. 47% of the total damage (US$1.1 trillion) was due to earthquakes followed by floods (31%). Regarding the number of people affected by natural disasters (in total 3.8 billion), floods accounted for 58% of those damages, storms for 16% and droughts together with extreme temperatures ac- counted for 24%. In the case of Latin America and the Caribbean, 1,268 natural disasters occurred within the last 20 years. Again, floods and storms constituted for the major part with 41% and 29% respectively followed by earthquakes (7%) and droughts (6%). Regarding the total damage of US$ 158 billion, storms made up 44%, earthquakes 29% and floods 17%. In total, 146 million people were affected by natural disasters. Droughts account for the majority (40%) followed by floods (26%), storms (19%) and earthquakes (10%).
Source - www.giz.de