Flood exposure and poverty in 188 countries

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30727-4
• Publication Date: 2022-06-28T17:32:08Z
• Authors: Jun Rentschler; Melda Salhab; Bramka Arga Jafino
• Keywords: 0303 health sciences; Science; Q; 1. No poverty; 333; Article; Floods; 6. Clean water; 3. Good health; Disasters; 03 medical and health sciences; 13. Climate action; Income; Humans; Poverty; Africa South of the Sahara

AbstractFlooding is among the most prevalent natural hazards, with particularly disastrous impacts in low-income countries. This study presents global estimates of the number of people exposed to high flood risks in interaction with poverty. It finds that 1.81 billion people (23% of world population) are directly exposed to 1-in-100-year floods. Of these, 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. Low- and middle-income countries are home to 89% of the world’s flood-exposed people. Of the 170 million facing high flood risk and extreme poverty (living on under $1.90 per day), 44% are in Sub-Saharan Africa. Over 780 million of those living on under $5.50 per day face high flood risk. Using state-of-the-art poverty and flood data, our findings highlight the scale and priority regions for flood mitigation measures to support resilient development.