This report presents the disaster impacts of 2022. Last year, the Emergency Event Database EM-DAT recorded 387 natural hazards and disasters worldwide, resulting in the lost of 30.704 lives and affecting 185 million individuals. Economic losses totalled around US$223.8 billion. Heatwaves caused over 16,00 excess deaths in Europe, while droughts affected 88.9 million people in Africa.
The human and economic impact of disasters was relatively higher in Africa, e.g, with 16.4% of the share of deaths compared to 3.8% in the previous two decades. It was relatively lower in Asia despite Asia experiencing some of the most destructive disasters in 2022. The Pakistan June-September floods affected 33 million people, causing 1,739 deaths and economic damage costing US$15 billion. Three major storm events also occurred, including two in the Philippines. Hurricane Ian struck the USA, causing damage word US$100 billion, making it the costliest disaster event of 2022. As for earthquakes, three events stood out in 2022, with two of these ranking among the top ten deadliest disaster events, in Afghanistan and in Indonesia.
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