2025 disasters in numbers: Earth, wind and fire

This publication of the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters reports on the 2025 disaster events. In 2025, the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) recorded 358 natural hazard-related disasters. These events resulted in 16,607 fatalities, affected 110.2 million people and caused US$169.68B in economic losses.

Asia accounted for a disproportionately large share of disaster-related deaths, due largely to major earthquakes in Myanmar and Afghanistan. The year was also marked by a record-breaking drought in Syria, which left 80% of the population in need of assistance; and by the Palisades and Eaton Fires, which ranked among the costliest wildfires ever recorded, both globally and in the United States of America.