Natural disasters data book 2021: An analytical overview

This book is published annually to provide statistical and analytical perspectives of disaster data. ADRC retrieves data from the Emergency Event Database (EM-DAT) in order to better understand the occurrence, deaths, people affected, and economic losses from disaster events. The overview is divided into three key sections: (1) disaster data of 2021 is compared with the annual average data of 1991-2020 both at the Global level and at the regional level; (2) climate-related disaster data of 2021 is compared with the annual average data of 1991-2020; and (3) COVID-19 situations at the global level and in the ADRC member countries are presented to show the cumulative data of confirmed cases and deaths.

Regarding disasters resulting from natural hazards in general, the number of occurrences has significantly increased during the last 30 years (1991-2020). This increasing trend is observed globally and in the Asian region. In 2021, the total of disaster occurrences was 436, which is higher than the annual average of 376 during the last 30 years. Flood and storm have consistently shown the highest frequency of occurrence and subsequently with the highest amounts of economic losses. Although the frequency of disaster occurrences has been increasing, the number of deaths from disasters is decreasing.