The number of global weather-related disasters has doubled since 1994, a report issued by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNIDSR) has found. According to the report, 90% of global disasters over the last two decades were weather-related, killing over 600,000 people and displacing over 4.1 billion.
The countries hit by the largest number of weather-related disasters over the past decades were the U.S., China, India, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Over 6,000 weather-related disasters were recorded, annually costing affected countries between US$250 billion and US$300 billion on average, according to nationally-reported disaster losses.
UNIDSR said that for future risk reduction, population growth will play an important role, and uncontrolled construction on flood-plains, and storm-prone coastal zones will continue to increase human vulnerabilities.
