Flood exposure and poverty in 188 countries
This study presents global estimates of the number of people exposed to high flood risks, while accounting for their respective poverty levels. To this end, the researchers use the latest global high-resolution data on different flood hazard types (fluvial, pluvial, and coastal) and population density. This is combined with subnationally disaggregated poverty data, based on the World Bank’s global database of harmonized household consumption surveys. These data sources enable us to conduct a high-resolution global flood hazard assessment, processing over 38 billion data points, covering 7.9 billion people in 188 countries and 2084 subnational regions.
This study's estimates show that about 1.81 billion people, or 23% of the world population, are directly exposed to inundation depths of over 0.15 meter during 1-in-100-year floods, which would pose significant risk to lives, especially of vulnerable population groups. The majority of flood-exposed people (1.24 billion) are located in South and East Asia, where China (395 million) and India (390 million) account for over one-third of global exposure.
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