Disaster Statistics


UNISDR Disaster Statistics
These Web pages from the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction feature statistics, tables, graphics, and maps on disaster occurrence and their impacts.

Societal Aspects of Weather - Injury and Damage Statistics
The "Societal Aspects of Weather" Web site includes pages on such climate/weather phenomena as floods, El Nino, tornadoes, extreme temperature, lightning, hurricanes and tropical cyclones, and winter weather, including this page on the societal impacts data.

NOAA's National Climate Data Center
Extreme Weather and Climate Events
Data Access
The Web Site of the National Climate Data Center includes data from thousands of weather stations around the world, as well as hundreds of images, numerous technical reports on extreme weather events, and lots of other climate/weather information. The second URL above focuses on climate extremes and severe weather related to climate change. It includes sections on U.S hurricanes, rainfall, temperature extremes, and tornadoes; billion dollar weather disasters; global climate change; El Nino/La Nina; 1991-98 weather extremes; historical global extremes; climate of 1998; U.S. local storm reports; climatic data; satellite images and radar composites. The third URL offers access to a robust selection of data from across NOAA's monitoring systems.

National Weather Service
NWS Natural Hazard Statistics
Climate Services
The National Weather Service has a bevy of statistics and data, including the "Summary of Natural Hazards Statistics," which covers fatalities due to all hazards, severe weather, lightning, tornadoes, tropical storms, heat, floods/flash floods, cold, winter storms, and high wind, the Flood States page which includes breakdowns of flood damage and fatalaties, and the Climate Services portal.

NWS National Hurricane Center
The U.S. National Hurricane Center offers much information on hurricanes past and present, including data on the deadliest, most expensive, and most intense storms. Its Web site also lists U.S. strikes by decade and U.S. strikes by state.

NOAA Tsunami Data and Information
This NOAA site provides a tsunami database that can be searched along any of several parameters, including location, date, magnitude, and number of deaths.

Congressional Budget Office
The Web site of the Congressional Budget Office includes a page of publications on Disaster Assistance expenditures as well as a special collection on the Effects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The Disaster Center
The Disaster Center Web site includes 50 pages dealing with data from a NOAA tornado statistics data base. The site developers have compiled cost, injury, and frequency data, and then conducted comparisons across states and calculations based on population. Individual state data are accessible this tornado page.

The Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters
The Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) Database (EM-DAT) documents natural and technological disasters around the world. EM-DAT contains essential core data on the occurrence and effects of thousands of mass disasters in the world from 1900 to present. The database is compiled from various sources, including U.N. agencies, nongovernmental organizations, insurance companies, research institutes and press agencies. At present, the EM-DAT databases are in two forms: standard and enhanced. The standard database consists of the data taken from an existing disaster database, checked for duplications, but not having any additional information included. As the databases are enhanced (i.e. additional information added) they are added to the Web site. Data are downloadable in several formats. Information in the databases includes:

  • The date when the disaster occurred
  • Country
  • Region
  • Continent
  • Dead
  • Affected Population
  • Injured
  • Homeless
  • Primary source of disaster information
  • A unique disaster number for each disaster
  • Whether OFDA responded to a disaster

The site also provides "Disaster Profiles" derived from data on natural disasters occurring during the last century. The profiles cover three areas: Top 10, Chronological Table, and Raw Data; and there are profiles covering individual countries, regions, the entire globe, and various disaster types. The site also offers other summary data and information on disaster trends in the form of graphs, charts, and maps.

IFRC World Disasters Report
The World Disasters Report, published annually by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, offers an accounting of disasters world-wide.

The Most Deadly Technological Disasters of the 20TH Century
The 100 Most Expensive Technological Disasters of the 20TH Century
The Most Deadly 100 Natural Disasters of the 20th Century
The 100 Most Expensive Natural Disasters of the 20TH Century
The Disaster Center Web site offers lists of what it considers to be the worst disasters on a number of metrics.

Disaster Deaths
This Web site compiles literature covering the causes and circumstances of disaster-related deaths. The current focus is on studies which examine individual fatalities from disasters involving environmental phenomena. Comments and additions are encouraged and should be sent to ilan_kelman@hotmail.com.