Natural disasters data book 2020: An analytical overview

This book aims to provide statistical perspectives in figures and tables of natural disaster data. Published annually by Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC), the Natural Disasters Data Book obtains data from EM-DAT and analyses it to show the occurrence, death tolls, people affected, and economic impact of disasters. For this year’s (FY2020) issue, two sets of data for statistical perspectives are added: data relating to climate-related disasters and data relating to COVID-19 situation.

This book presents many observations that could be made after looking at the infographics and the following could be highlighted. Firstly, flood and storm have been the most frequent causes of disasters in 2020 as well as during the last 30 years. These two disaster types also account for the highest number of people affected and the highest economic losses in 2020 and in the last 30 years. This indicates that disaster risk reduction and management actions for flood and storm need further improvements. Secondly, flood and storm are climate-related disaster types that show the tendency of frequently occurring, as observed in 2020 and during the last 30 years. This observation is notable not only globally, but also, in Asia. Thirdly, the number of confirmed cases and deaths from COVID-19 has peaked in several occasions since the World Health Organization declared the pandemic on 11 March 2020. In ADRC member countries, cumulative data shows that COVID-19 situation is so varied, reflecting the differences in policies as well as socioeconomic conditions of Asian countries.