The human cost of disaster displacement in Bangladesh: A life-year approach to understanding impacts

This report estimates the human cost of disaster displacement in Bangladesh and shows how this evidence can inform disaster risk reduction, recovery planning and investment decisions. Bangladesh is among the countries most affected by disaster displacement worldwide.

Between 2008 and 2025, disasters, primarily cyclones, floods and storm surges, triggered more than 21 million movements. For many people, internal displacement is a recurrent shock, disrupting housing, livelihoods, access to services and overall wellbeing and generating substantial human costs. In Bangladesh, disaster displacement is estimated to have resulted in around 89,000 life-years lost between 2008 and 2025, equivalent to about $1.7 billion in cumulative human costs or an average of $102 million a year.