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The correct answer is C. Annual deaths from natural disasters have decreased by 75 percent over the past 100 years, according to the International Disaster Database.
Since disasters vary from year to year, Factfulness compares ten-year averages. In the last ten years (2007–2016), on average 80,386 people were killed by natural disasters per year.
Compare this with 100 years earlier (1907–1916), when on average 325,742 were killed by natural disasters per year. People today have 75% less chance of being killed by a natural disaster than their grand-parents or great grand-parents.
The huge decline in disaster deaths would be even more striking if two other major global changes were also taken into account. First, the number of people has increased by four, which calls for counting disaster deaths per capita. 1907–1916, there were 181 disaster deaths per million people. 2007–2016, the number was 11. The relative number has dropped to 6 percent of what it was 100 years ago. Second, 100 years ago the communication technologies for reporting disasters were very primitive, compared to the monitoring of today, which means that many catastrophes must have gone unrecorded or been underreported.
The International Disaster Database includes death toll estimates for 8,969 disasters recorded worldwide since 1900. All known emergency events have been categorized as follows: Animal accident, Complex disasters, Drought, Earthquake, Epidemic, Extreme temperature, Flood, Fog, Impact, Insect infestation, Landslide, Mass movement (dry), Storm, Volcanic activity, Wildfire. See Gapminder Question 7.
Data Sources
- EM-DAT Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED). The International Disaster Database. Debarati Guha-Sapir, Université catholique de Louvain. Accessed November 5, 2017. Available at: emdat.be
Correct!
The correct answer is C. Annual deaths from natural disasters have decreased by 75 percent over the past 100 years, according to the International Disaster Database.
Since disasters vary from year to year, Factfulness compares ten-year averages. In the last ten years (2007–2016), on average 80,386 people were killed by natural disasters per year.
Compare this with 100 years earlier (1907–1916), when on average 325,742 were killed by natural disasters per year. People today have 75% less chance of being killed by a natural disaster than their grand-parents or great grand-parents.
The huge decline in disaster deaths would be even more striking if two other major global changes were also taken into account. First, the number of people has increased by four, which calls for counting disaster deaths per capita. 1907–1916, there were 181 disaster deaths per million people. 2007–2016, the number was 11. The relative number has dropped to 6 percent of what it was 100 years ago. Second, 100 years ago the communication technologies for reporting disasters were very primitive, compared to the monitoring of today, which means that many catastrophes must have gone unrecorded or been underreported.
The International Disaster Database includes death toll estimates for 8,969 disasters recorded worldwide since 1900. All known emergency events have been categorized as follows: Animal accident, Complex disasters, Drought, Earthquake, Epidemic, Extreme temperature, Flood, Fog, Impact, Insect infestation, Landslide, Mass movement (dry), Storm, Volcanic activity, Wildfire. See Gapminder Question 7.
Data Sources
- EM-DAT Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED). The International Disaster Database. Debarati Guha-Sapir, Université catholique de Louvain. Accessed November 5, 2017. Available at: emdat.be