The Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC) statistical perspectives in figures and tables for 2009 as well as for he period 1975-2009 based on data obtained by EM-DAT.
According to EM-DAT, 399 natural disasters occurred in 2009 worldwide, killing almost 16,000 people and affecting over 220 million people. The estimated amount of economic damage came close to US$50 billion.
By region, Asia is the highest in all the indices: in disaster occurrences, Asia accounts for 35.8 percent; number of people killed, 52.1 percent; total number of affected people, 78.3 percent; and amount of economic damage, 44.9 percent.
Worldwide disaster trends in composition of indices and top shares of impacts vary by disaster type. For instance, flood made up the largest share of 37.8 percent of all disaster occurrences; epidemic, 30.5 percent of total number of people killed; drought, 49.0 percent of total affected people; and storm, 53.0 percent of total amount of economic damage.
Within Asia, the indices show similar trends except in the category of fatality which is led by storm-related disasters with a share of 34.0 percent. Typhoon Ketsana alone caused 715 deaths and affected a total of more than 7.5 million people across 4 countries.the Philippines, Viet Nam, Cambodia and Lao P.D.R. Total economic damage exceeded US$1.1 billion. In addition, Typhoon Morakot wrecked havoc in the Philippines, Taiwan, and China, killing 664, affecting a total of over 13 million people and costing about US$1.7 billion in economic damage. Another major disaster in Asia includes the September earthquake in Sumatra, Indonesia, which killed 1,195 people, affected a total of over 2.5 million people and caused around US$2.2 billion worth of economic damage.
Data Book 2009 also contains tables of the 25 worst disasters by number of people killed and total affected people, economic damage, and their respective ratios to population and gross domestic product. It also includes tables of 2009 disasters in ADRC member and other Asian countries sorted by country and disaster type.
